The issue of salaries must be resolved in a unified way, and the pressure for an increase in this area came from the city halls, from their officials, whose salaries are limited by law below the salaries of mayors and vice-mayors, Deputy Prime Minister Kelemen Hunor, President said on Wednesday evening UDMR, reports Agerpres.

According to him, what was interrupted at a certain time for a certain category during the pandemic should be agreed in the wage law.

“For doctors, then for teachers, they followed the road map, for others – not. So if we don’t have a unified approach, then things are going in the wrong direction again, I say. So the problem is not, At the moment you can say that for parliamentarians you don’t need to increase salaries, that’s fine, no problem, you can, but for local elected officials you have to step up. And that was the idea. At some point there was a discussion in the coalition, and this was an idea. It was not about parliamentarians,” Kelemen Gunor told Euronews Romania.

The leader of the UDMR clarified that it is about civil servants from city halls, especially from communes, who have low salaries.

“It is very clearly written in the salary law that no one can have a higher salary than the deputy mayor. You are in vain for budget workers, because they are stuck in this article. And there are also many city halls that remain deserted. , where people leave. (. . .) It’s not a big increase, but a quarter of what needed to be done, so it’s not a big jump. And it was an idea of ​​the time, not the parliamentarians. (.. .) It’s wrong to lead the debate in the direction of increasing or not increasing monetary allowances for deputies, because it was not an idea. And the pressure did not come from the parliamentary sphere, it came from the city halls, and not necessarily from the mayors, from civil servants, because there is such a provision that no one can have a higher salary, than the deputy mayor. And then we all said, yes, this situation needs to be resolved,” explained Kelemen Hunor.

He added that there is a tendency to go to extremes, to demagoguery, to populism.

“You don’t have to give more than you need, you don’t have to leave the Romanian economic context, you can’t compare yourself with Germany, with the USA. (…) But here there is another approach. .Whether you want it or not, you have to speak by name. In the town hall, you cannot live without officials if you want to work, and not allow officials to live on 3,000 lei – 3,100 lei,” reasoned the vice-prime minister.

Regarding the situation in the Senate, Kelemen Hunor showed that “seven senators cannot vote for the law”, two of them are at the government meeting, this initiative is supported by all representatives of the parties that have mayors in the territory.

“This initiative or this amendment was supported by everyone who has mayors, so the pressure comes from there, and it is a legitimate pressure, because the mayors receive money from officials and they work with people. And this was the idea. The debate is going to the Parliament. We are talking about low salaries .. (…) The problem is that every time we enter the zone of populism when it comes to salaries, and this is not good at all. (…) Here, it is not about wealth, but about a decent salary for a person who performs public duties position, especially when she was elected to a public position or was appointed to a public position and for which she has certain duties,” said the leader of the UDMR.

In this context, he announced that a coalition discussion of the draft budget would begin in October, so that it would go to the parliament in November and be voted on at the end of the year. “We proposed to start discussing the draft budget sooner than before. Therefore, in October we start discussions in the coalition, then in the Government, in November in the parliament, so as not to enter December, the end or, God forbid, in 2023 without a voted budget. And when we see all the numbers, we will see all our options, then we can also discuss this idea of ​​a European minimum wage, which is a recommendation,” added the deputy prime minister.

At the plenary session of the Senate on Wednesday, the legislative project, according to which local dignitaries and elected officials should receive increased allowances, was voted 92 in favor, 22 against and 4.

According to UDMR senators Touros Lorand and Feuer-László Odon, the authors of the amendment adopted by the specialized commission and adopted in the plenary session, the aim is to “remove the existing injustice at the moment”.