Romanian opposition wants to force 40% pension hike in Parliament

Romania's Social Democrats consider amending the budget revision law, submitted by the Government for endorsement, in the sense of hiking the pensions by 40% - in line with the Pension Law - instead of 14% as proposed by the Executive.

"Pensions will increase by 40%, in line with the law in force, and the Government no longer has any mechanism, any kind of trick, to try, as much as it would like, to avoid this increase that the Romanian pensioners need very much," said Alfred Simonis, the leader of Social Democrat MPs, Bursa.ro reported.

"Next week, we will probably have the budget revision law passed without the article on increasing pensions by only 14%," he added.

Prime minister Ludovic Orban explained that 14% is all that the state budget can provide at this moment, and the remaining increase, up to the 40% set in the Pension Law, was only deferred. He said that the Government would refer the Parliament's decision to the Constitutional Court unless the lawmakers agreed with the Executive's more cautious approach. Still, it remains unclear whether the matter pertains to the Constitutional Court at all.

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