Let's be realistic, not population. We cannot rectify the budget only from cutting expenses

Romania does not have great expenses, but small receipts, writes the political science teacher Alina Mungiu-Pippidi in an opinion that Hotnews publishes.

Let's end with populism! At least after the elections.

It is very difficult to govern a country when populism is in power, in parties, and in media, and voters, and when it was to die the Romanian democracy of such populism. But simple and the meaning of all, let's correct some great errors of public opinion.

The first, Romania has no budget deficit and debt because some have stolen. Some stole, but we put them in prison more than the Bulgarians, Hungarians or Slovaks did and I hope to put them.

We have a deficit because we have a poor population and the populist governments have given money to re -establish them, not as a percentage of economic growth, but on debt.

We are at the tail of Europe at expenses

Magistrates, teachers, policemen, pensioners all have part of the deficit. Of course, there are special pensioners more equal than others, but their total weight is so small that their elimination solves only a problem of social justice, not a fiscal one.

The second, Romania does not have high expenses, but small revenues. See two Eurostat graphs below with the total expenses in 2023, we are in line, and their composition, and maybe we see that we have not lied to the world with desert threats, the reckless countries end up spending more than on health (green versus brown and sovereigns who love Hungary).

Of course, it is good to cut irrational expenses and any occasion is good, but considering the total of the great expenses we will not do, what to say about the political cost.

Do we cut the firefighters?

Can we cut the churches money (what tempting)? Maybe we leave there the aid for autistic children, cut recklessly by Basescu, maybe we no longer isolate blocks on the budget when we have PNRR (the worst drawn from PNRR in Europe, only Lithuania compares.).

And maybe we can no longer cut from firefighters, that two firefighters cannot control all the premises in a sector, on education and research we are the worst …

Extra common? It's been ten years since we propose this … don't we collect VAT? Is it a hidden form of state aid, that the big debtors are in the public sector, what to do, to give people outside? It's an illusion that everything is fraud! Yes, cut, but you have no place to cut enough and the political muscle for cutting, that they did not vote for two thirds.

We saved the European idea, it is not necessary to hate ourselves

As such, in the short term the European Commission will understand us, that we have just saved Europe, if you unlock the European money is probably enough for balancing. We do not solve the deficit until autumn and it is a reckless politics for us and for Europe to do it at this time. And in the medium and long term my solution is the same as the IMF, here.

The choice of President Nicușor Dan solved our credit issue. Come on, as the next step, to propose a state reform to increase our credit.

But realistically speaking we will not write it in May and we will not apply it until autumn and we will not grow public expenses, on the contrary, the money and innovation money is missing. Let's be realistic, not population.

Figure 1. Government expenses as a percentage of GDP

Figure 2. Composition of government spending