USR's Barna: 2019 budget is of lies, pushing Romania into crisis

The USR chair Dan Barna considers that the budget proposed by the Government for 2019 is a budget "of lies and of pushing Romania into crisis", it is based on "aberrant" revenues and the expenditures are "impossible to cover". 

"This budget is the consequence of the photo that all the press presented last week with six people who decided on the future of Romania, three of whom have criminal convictions. The six people decided this budget, which I would call a budget of lies and of pushing Romania into crisis. (...) The revenues this budget is based on are aberrant. We are talking about an increase of 5.5pct in the conditions where we had 4pct last year, given that Europe is in stagnation and under the conditions that all European economic growth is on a downward trend. We are basically talking about some incomes that cannot even be theoretically attainable: probably a 2 to 3pct increase would be related to reality," Barna said on Friday in a press conference. 

"In the case of investments, we are presented with a fantasy by Mr. Valcov [prime minister's adviser]. If we had a 3pct increase in the last two years, we are now promised a 4.6pct. He has no references in the budget that can make them possible," Barna said. 

Referring to the "increase in resources left to the big cities", he said that this is "doubled by aberrant spending to be covered by these cities." 

"It is just a PR image that Liviu Dragnea has sold to the mayors he has. From this budget, I think that the localities are just victims and not the beneficiaries", added the USR head.