The 2026 budget enters the Parliament debate. Tensions between PSD and Prime Minister Bolojan on amendments / Debate calendar
The parties have until today, at 1 p.m., to submit amendments to the draft state budget for 2026, adopted on Thursday in the extraordinary meeting of the Government. PSD announced that it will submit several amendments so that the solidarity package proposed by the party receives full funding from the state budget.
The debates in the specialized parliamentary committees will start on Tuesday, while the assembled plenum will debate the budget on Wednesday so that the final vote will be given on Thursday.
The tensions between PSD and Ilie Bolojan
In order to adopt the budget, the Government needs the support of PSD. Gathered in a meeting, on Sunday, the social democrats decided that they will vote in favor of adopting the state budget for 2026, but after submitting amendments to ensure social protection measures for disadvantaged categories, measures previously supported by the social democrats.
“We will submit amendments to the Parliament to ensure the full financing of the Solidarity Package, i.e. the support for 3.5 million families – pensioners with low incomes, disabled children, mothers or veterans, who suffer the most from the austerity measures of the last year”, announced Sorin Grindeanu, at the end of the meeting, adding that this is the “firm” mandate received from the party leadership.
He brought more criticism to the prime minister because the taxes imposed decreased consumption and the purchasing power of salaries and pensions. “You implemented a savage austerity for those who work, leaving the evasion untouched at 10% of the GDP and ignoring the arrears of 37 billion lei”, is one of the reproaches leveled at Ilie Bolojan.
Bolojan: “PSD is trying to come up with an AUR-type rhetoric”
In a show on Digi24, on Sunday evening, Prime Minister Bolojan qualified PSD's decision as “a political action” through which “they are trying to come up with an AUR-type rhetoric, trying to delimit themselves from the responsibilities of this government”, according to news.ro.
Bolojan also said that PSD's mode of action cannot bring results and made a “call for responsibility” to the parliamentarians, reminding them that “it is a tight budget and it is not worth going back to the mistakes we made in the past years”.
“Through this game of amendments, the PSD is trying to come up with an AUR-type rhetoric, somehow trying to distance itself from the government's responsibility. I don't think it's a solution that will bring results. Trying to copy a certain rhetoric, I don't think you solve things,” said Ilie Bolojan
PNL warns of an agreement between PSD and AUR
The PNL issued a press release in which it asks the PSD not to turn the budget debate into a political exercise and to respect the rules established in the coalition. Liberals, the amendments to the budget must be discussed within the Coalition and assumed by the Government supported by the parliamentary majority, not negotiated behind the scenes or imposed by surprise votes in Parliament.
The fears of the liberals were expressed already on Saturday by the leader of the PNL Iasi organization, Alexandru Muraru, who declared, on Antena 3, that PSD and AUR agreed to vote together, in committees and in plenary, on amendments to the budget project.
What the budget looks like in 2026
The data from the draft budget for 2026 show significant increases in funding for some ministries and institutions in areas such as energy, defense, European funds or digitization, but also for the High Court and the General Prosecutor's Office.
There will also be important increases for the Presidential Administration and the SRI. Instead, Health is among the areas for which the budget will be reduced compared to last year.
Budget revenues are estimated at approximately 391.7 billion lei, while expenses reach 527.4 billion lei, which means a deficit of approximately 135.7 billion lei.
However, the document also allows commitment credits of over 712 billion lei, i.e. promises of spending for projects that will span several years.
The calendar of budget debates
According to the schedule adopted by the joint Bureaus of the two Chambers, amendments to the draft budget can be submitted from Friday to Monday, March 16, 2026, at 1:00 p.m.
On Monday, between 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m., the centralization and grouping of amendments will take place at the commissions by main credit authorizing officers, and at 5:30 p.m. the meeting of the permanent Bureaus assembled to establish the debate times will take place.
On Monday, between 18:00 and 22:00, joint meetings of the specialized committees of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate are scheduled for the examination, approval and submission of opinions to the Budget, Finance and Bank Committees on the State Budget Law Project and the State Social Security Budget Law Project for the year 2026.
On Tuesday, from 09:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. there will be general debates within the Committees for budget, finance and banks and from 11:00 a.m. until Wednesday, March 18, 2026 at 1:00 p.m. there will be debates within the Committees for budget, finance and banks with the main credit officers and the preparation of reports on the Draft State Budget Law and the Draft Budget Law state social insurance for the year 2026.
On Wednesday, at 3:00 p.m., the reports of the Budget, Finance and Bank Committees will be submitted regarding the State Budget Law Project and the State Social Security Budget Law Project for the year 2026 and at 3:30 p.m. the meeting of the united Permanent Bureaus of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate will take place to determine the times for the plenary debate.
On Wednesday, from 16:00 and on Thursday, the joint meeting of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate will take place for the debate and adoption of the State Budget Law Project and the State Social Security Budget Law Project for the year 2026, with general debates – debates on annexes.
The assembled bureaus determined that the final vote would take place on Thursday.
