Romanian prime minister’s public administration reforms plan prompts tensions within ruling coalition

Statements by Romanian prime minister Ilie Bolojan about cutting by 10% the total personnel budget for all ministers and other similar contracting units, as opposed to only the central administration of the respective bodies, prompted on November 19 a radical reaction from the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and trade unions in the public sector. No final form of the document was circulated or surfaced, however.

If approved, the 10% payroll cut would come on top of another measure that impacts the incomes of the employees in the country’s budgetary sector: their wages (as well as the public pensions) were frozen at the level of November 2024, until the end of 2026 - under the first package of budgetary reforms legislated in July. In real terms, this freezing already translates into a (roughly) 10% reduction in their incomes through 2025 as the inflation remains close to the double-digit area at the end of the year. More, yet lower, inflation is expected in 2026.