The Minister of Labor: “The idea of ​​the coalition is not necessarily dead, but big question marks have been raised”

The Minister of Labour, Florin Manole (PSD), declared at Prima News that the deadlock in Parliament on the 2026 budget debate is caused by the stubbornness of the USR and PNL who considered that the PSD amendments are exaggerated. Florin Manole also stated that there are “big question marks” related to the functioning of the coalition.

The Minister of Labor was asked why this deadlock was reached in the budget debate in Parliament.

“Out of stubbornness. I'm sorry to say it, of the other parties, but not of all, the UDMR sought consensus all this day. The fact that the USR and the PNL considered this amendment to be exaggerated, although we are talking about a billion lei from a budget with 737 billion revenues, due to the fact that, instead of possibly being criticized for the imbalance, for a certain error, and to be countered by another variant and through another constructive proposal, the choice of the others was to just say no, no, no”, said Minister Florin Manole, quoted by News.ro.

He specified that, for now, apart from PSD and UDMR and part of the minority group, he did not see that the others wanted this amendment.

“We are talking about very little money, for people who have little money and who will use this money for consumption the next day, after they receive it. That is, they will pay VAT immediately after and part of the money will go back to the budget anyway. So, it is absurd. At the same time that, by increasing the minimum wage in the economy, for example, the state earns 500 million lei, that is, half of the impact for which there was this dispute”, added the minister.

Manole mentioned that, if we had increased the minimum wage from January 1, that is, as the law and the European directive said, then we would have had a surplus of 1 billion in the state budget. The Minister of Labor also showed that the budget for social assistance is lower by 1.1 billion lei than last year.

“I think that, after today, the idea of ​​the coalition is not necessarily dead, but big question marks have certainly been raised and I don't think it's my personal assessment. I think that those from PNL, and those from USR and those from UDMR also felt it”, said Florin Manole.

The third day of debates on the state budget was again marked by scandal in Parliament. A PSD amendment was rejected in the budget committees, after the AUR abstained from voting. And that twice. The Social-Democrats then accused the coalition colleagues, USR and PNL, of “clinging with their teeth to all the legislative bits” in order to refuse the amendment, which provides for the granting of a single aid for pensioners.

PNL and USR have repeatedly criticized these amendments, stating that there are no budget revenues for such aid. Controversy followed between PSD and AUR, and between PSD and PNL, and between PSD and USR. And after several episodes with scandal and pauses, it was decided to suspend the works indefinitely, and on Thursday there will be talks in the coalition.