The ruling coalition meets on the date of the presidential elections and the alliance's common candidate

The leaders of the ruling coalition meet on Wednesday for their first session of the year. They will discuss the date of the presidential elections and the joint candidate of the PSD-PNL-UDMR alliance, after Crin Antonescu's announcement to suspend his candidacy from the coalition. Debates are also expected on the 2025 state budget, which the authorities want to adopt by the end of this month.

Alina Bordeiasu: "Finance Minister Tanczos Barna said that the draft budget will respect the deficit limit of 7% of GDP, without new tax increases, but through tighter control of public spending. He said the so-called "Little Train" ordinance, which underpins the state budget law, has blocked spending of more than 126 billion lei, and the results will show.

Tanczos Barna: "The results will mean mergers of institutions, better structures. At the same time, we have to move towards normality in another respect: the average net salary in the public sector cannot always be ahead of the average net salary in the private sector. This gap must be eliminated over time."

Cartel Alfa has asked the People's Advocate to appeal to the Constitutional Court against the article in the Little Train ordinance that provides for a freeze on the indexation of pensions. Union leader Bogdan Hosu said that the pension increase had been set by a vote in parliament and could not be postponed by an ordinance issued by the government.

Bogdan Hosu: "It remains to be seen whether the People's Advocate will react or not to our appeal, because we have seen that the People's Advocate often substitutes itself for the requests of citizens or non-governmental trade union organizations related to the Constitutional Court's appeal."

The ordinance, which came into force on January 1, brings measures such as freezing pensions and salaries, eliminating tax breaks and restricting certain benefits."

Translated by: Radu Matei