PSD has decided, on Sunday afternoon, to enter the Veștea Government, assuming 8 portfolios in the executive that will be submitted for the parliament’s vote, plus the government’s general secretary.
„The National Political Council unanimously decided for the Social Democratic Party to participate in forming a parliamentary majority to support a new Government.
Romania urgently needs a functional government to stop blind austerity and eliminate the current political deadlock. PSD's decision comes after a thorough analysis and appropriate adjustment of the government program.
The new Executive has the duty to take measures to resume economic growth and protect vulnerable populations. The main targets are reducing inflation, funding national strategic and vital investments for communities. All these efforts must comply with the strict financial-budgetary balances," PSD stated.
The portfolios that PSD is assuming are:
- Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Internal Affairs - Marian Neacșu
- Minister of Justice - Radu Marinescu
- Minister of Agriculture - Florin Barbu
- Minister of Energy - Bogdan Ivan
- Minister of Health - Alexandru Rogobete
- Minister of Labor, Family, Youth, and Social Solidarity - Florin Manole
- Minister of Environment, Waters, and Forests - Mihai Ghigiu
- Minister of Culture - Ionuț Vulpescu
- Government General Secretary - Radu Oprea
PSD also stated that its vote of confidence for the Veștea Cabinet "is not a blank check" and that "it will closely monitor each decision with economic impact, will not tolerate delays in attracting European funds, nor any other fiscal experiment at the expense of Romanian taxpayers."
After Prime Minister-designate Adrian Veștea submits the list of ministers and the government program to Parliament, the Joint Bureaus of Parliament will establish the voting schedule and the hearing schedule for the proposed ministers.
The PSD National Political Council was convened on Sunday to officially decide whether to enter the Veștea Government. The meeting took place on the same day as the extraordinary congress of the PNL, where the liberals elected their new leadership and decided on tough measures against Adrian Veștea and some leaders who support him.
Context
Before the Sunday meeting, PSD announced the conditions it considers mandatory for supporting the future government.
- The Social Democrats demand that the government program includes increasing the minimum wage, indexing pensions, measures to support mothers, veterans, and persons with disabilities, as well as extending the scheme to limit the commercial margin for essential products, both food and non-food, included in the minimum consumption basket.
- PSD also calls for halting the increase of the tax burden on low and middle-income individuals and small entrepreneurs. The party argues that budget balancing should be primarily done through investments and economic activities that generate additional revenues for the budget, not through austerity measures.
- The list of conditions also includes expanding the "Hot Meal" program in schools, administrative reform, reducing public expenses, encouraging the merger of small localities, reducing bureaucracy, decreasing administrative burdens for citizens and businesses by at least 25%, shortening authorization deadlines by a minimum of 30%, and paying the state's debts to companies.
- In the economy, PSD demands the resumption of support programs for strategic sectors, through state guarantees for investments and working capital, interest rate subsidies, and expanding the Rabla program for the auto industry. For agriculture, the Social Democrats propose a program of subsidized interest loans by 80% for farmers.
The Adrian Veștea Government needs 233 votes for the government to be invested. At this moment, he does not have the necessary votes. PNL, USR, UDMR, and SOS have announced that they do not support the Veștea Government. The leadership of AUR states that they will not vote for the new government, but there have been some signs of indecision.
In parallel, Veștea has negotiated with smaller parliamentary groups and unaffiliated parliamentarians. He held discussions with the United for Romania group, made up of parliamentarians elected on the POT lists, which also includes Victor Ponta.
Veștea also spoke with POT elected officials, members of the PACE group, especially from S.O.S Romania, and unaffiliated parliamentarians. He also stated that he does not exclude negotiations with AUR. Calculations show that even if he had all PSD votes, plus votes from unaffiliated, UPR, and minorities, Veștea would still need votes from PNL and/or AUR to reach the threshold of 233.