The issue of special pensions must be solved, considering that it is a milestone assumed in the National Resilience and Recovery Plan (PNRR), and I will not accept the loss of money from this programme, the Social Democratic Party (PSD) leader Marcel Ciolacu said on Monday night for the private TV broadcaster Antena 3, write Agerpres.

Marcel Ciolacu added that special pensions and the accumulation of the pension with the state salary are different things and, in the case of special pensions, in order not to risk rejection at the Constitutional Court of Romania (CCR), several options will be used.

„First of all, Romania must make certain reforms, reforms assumed in PNRR. As I said a few days ago, we have a plague of special pensions which, slowly, slowly, is an inequity, slowly, slowly leads to a social crisis, thing which we have to solve punctually. I will not accept that Romania loses a single euro from the PNRR, because it has not reached any milestone, especially the milestone regarding special pensions, but, over the years, we have given a lot of laws that were returned from the Constitutional Court. The most important is the fact that the milestone with special pensions must be resolved. (…) Slowly, slowly, it became a very big pressure, it is an injustice and from here, I repeat, we can even reach a social crisis because of some things that happened in these 30 years. (…) It’s a very serious matter,” Marcel Ciolacu declared.

Asked if the pensions already in payment would also be affected, Ciolacu said that „fair taxation” can be used for special in payment pensions.

„You can resort to taxation, to a fair taxation, on certain thresholds, if you do not exceed the income you had in the activity, if you had additional income, you were also employed by the state during this period. This must be corrected. You cannot overtax the private sector while you, the Romanian state, have not done your duty, as regards the collection, the digitization of the National Tax Administration Agency (ANAF), combating tax evasion. First, the state should do its job and finally we will talk about progressive taxation,” Ciolacu assessed.

The PSD leader added that state employment should be stopped, less so in Health and Education, and can be resumed whenever necessary.

Marcel Ciolacu emphasized that there will be no cuts in pensions or salaries, and a new salary law will be a priority for the coalition, in order to eliminate the exceptions. At the same time, by the future salary law, the increments, which should be included in the body of the salary, would be eliminated.

The PSD leader said that he discussed with the other leaders in the coalition, UDMR’s Kelemen Hunor and PNL’s Nicolae Ciuca, in order to have an analysis regarding the secretaries of state, in the conditions where „maybe there are too many in the offices of dignitaries”.