Romanian Elections&Politics (June 9th - Local and europarliamentary elections)

[RGM2609]

A question about the state of the Romanian economy: Here in my country there was, and still is, a lot of talk and discussion regarding the latest Eurostat numbers that show that Romania "caught" Portugal in terms of GDP per capita in PPS, both at 77%.

How do you see the Romanian economy and its progress in the last few years.

There was a lot of growth indeed, but it was largely artificial and based on a growth in consumption and state spending rather than actual development. Where this can best be seen is in the growth of inflation. For starters, following a period of negative inflation in 2015-2016, following a festival of spending by the PSD governments it went up from -2% in 2016 to 5% in 2018, in the absence of an international inflationary environment. Similarly, after the center-right coalition broke in 2021 and PSD came back to power, inflation, indeed a lot of it coming from the international context, rose to 16% and shows no signs of slowing down. The public finances have gone completely overboard, and so has the debt. Romania is now borrowing at interest rates of almost 8%, matched only by Hungary, and the debt has surpassed 50% of the GDP in order to fund PSD's lavish spending.

Don't get me wrong, a lot of things did go well in the last few years. But the main source of growth is what I mentioned above: public spending. It is highly unlikely that it is sustainable.

I think you can see my economical ideology through this analysis, but it is the closest I can get to both staying factual and expressing my views. I am no economist and I could obviously be wrong about a lot of things. Hopefully I answered your question properly, and if anyone has other questions please ask them.

[Mike88]

A question about the state of the Romanian economy: Here in my country there was, and still is, a lot of talk and discussion regarding the latest Eurostat numbers that show that Romania "caught" Portugal in terms of GDP per capita in PPS, both at 77%.

How do you see the Romanian economy and its progress in the last few years.

There was a lot of growth indeed, but it was largely artificial and based on a growth in consumption and state spending rather than actual development. Where this can best be seen is in the growth of inflation. For starters, following a period of negative inflation in 2015-2016, following a festival of spending by the PSD governments it went up from -2% in 2016 to 5% in 2018, in the absence of an international inflationary environment. Similarly, after the center-right coalition broke in 2021 and PSD came back to power, inflation, indeed a lot of it coming from the international context, rose to 16% and shows no signs of slowing down. The public finances have gone completely overboard, and so has the debt. Romania is now borrowing at interest rates of almost 8%, matched only by Hungary, and the debt has surpassed 50% of the GDP in order to fund PSD's lavish spending.

Don't get me wrong, a lot of things did go well in the last few years. But the main source of growth is what I mentioned above: public spending. It is highly unlikely that it is sustainable.

I think you can see my economical ideology through this analysis, but it is the closest I can get to both staying factual and expressing my views. I am no economist and I could obviously be wrong about a lot of things. Hopefully I answered your question properly, and if anyone has other questions please ask them.

Interesting. That increase in public spending is in wages for public employees/state machine or in infrastructures/reforms on public services? From your answer I assume that there is a lot of wasteful spending and wrong investments that could also increasing the national debt.

[RGM2609]

A question about the state of the Romanian economy: Here in my country there was, and still is, a lot of talk and discussion regarding the latest Eurostat numbers that show that Romania "caught" Portugal in terms of GDP per capita in PPS, both at 77%.

How do you see the Romanian economy and its progress in the last few years.

There was a lot of growth indeed, but it was largely artificial and based on a growth in consumption and state spending rather than actual development. Where this can best be seen is in the growth of inflation. For starters, following a period of negative inflation in 2015-2016, following a festival of spending by the PSD governments it went up from -2% in 2016 to 5% in 2018, in the absence of an international inflationary environment. Similarly, after the center-right coalition broke in 2021 and PSD came back to power, inflation, indeed a lot of it coming from the international context, rose to 16% and shows no signs of slowing down. The public finances have gone completely overboard, and so has the debt. Romania is now borrowing at interest rates of almost 8%, matched only by Hungary, and the debt has surpassed 50% of the GDP in order to fund PSD's lavish spending.

Don't get me wrong, a lot of things did go well in the last few years. But the main source of growth is what I mentioned above: public spending. It is highly unlikely that it is sustainable.

I think you can see my economical ideology through this analysis, but it is the closest I can get to both staying factual and expressing my views. I am no economist and I could obviously be wrong about a lot of things. Hopefully I answered your question properly, and if anyone has other questions please ask them.

Interesting. That increase in public spending is in wages for public employees/state machine or in infrastructures/reforms on public services? From your answer I assume that there is a lot of wasteful spending and wrong investments that could also increasing the national debt.

The spending increased the most when it comes to the state apparatus as well as on pensions and social welfare. Investments aren't a priority, whatever is done always goes through the local barons who steal as much as possible for their interest groups. Nearly all good investments, especially in infrastructure, were done through European funds. There are a lot of them in the EU recovery plan; which the current coalition is squandering.

[RGM2609]

I usually don't post daily news, but I think sonething which happened today during the PNL leadership meeting is very important and speaks loudly to the issues facing the party.

So, basically, following a series of disastrous events during which PNL got associated with another attempt to legalise corruption, PNL leaders, who have been left out of the decisional process by Iohannis and his stooge Nicolae Ciuca, have had what some would call a meltdown. Vasile Blaga, a famously calm figure, former PDL leader and now a MEP, lashed out and said that PNL is nothing more than "PSD's waiter" and that random country roads have better notoriety than the party's ministers. Other leaders jumped in too, perhaps less colourfully, but the message was broadly similar. Ciuca found himself unable to respond.

As was hinted in other posts on the thread, PNL is going through a profound crisis, and its day of recknoning is looming. President Iohannis has treated it as nothing more than a pawn, installed people like Ciuca who have nothing to do with the party in high offices and governed through stooges nominated on PNL's quota, leaving actual PNLers in the dark. Now, with Ciuca soon having to cede the Prime Ministership to PSD, PNL leaders may have the opportunity to rebel against Iohannis. But more on that in a few months.

Interestingly, the option of "leaving the government" was discussed in PNL. Not kicking PSD out, but leaving themselves. The implications of this are deeper than one might imagine.

[Mike88]

Yikes, what a mess. The "legalize corruption" policy is quite funny. It seems that PNL is divided between two faction: one that closer ties with PSD and another who wants to a total break with the PSD. Though the first one seems to be the majority.

Which could be the consequences for Iohannis and the party's possible candidate(s) for next year's Presidential election?

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Yikes, what a mess. The "legalize corruption" policy is quite funny. It seems that PNL is divided between two faction: one that closer ties with PSD and another who wants to a total break with the PSD. Though the first one seems to be the majority.

Which could be the consequences for Iohannis and the party's possible candidate(s) for next year's Presidential election?

I am also wondering this.

[RGM2609]

Yikes, what a mess. The "legalize corruption" policy is quite funny. It seems that PNL is divided between two faction: one that closer ties with PSD and another who wants to a total break with the PSD. Though the first one seems to be the majority.

Which could be the consequences for Iohannis and the party's possible candidate(s) for next year's Presidential election?

Indeed there is this this schism. Earlier this year, there were some idiots who even proposed an electoral alliance between PSD and PNL in 2024. Iohannis is known to be quite fond of the idea, and is willing to back PSD's presidential candidate in exchange for becoming Prime Minister following the election. I doubt it will go this far, but I just wanted to point out how far some PNLers are willing to go.

The key moment is coming in around 2 or 3 months, when Ciuca will cede the PM position to PSD. Together with this change, there will also be a revamp of the Ministers and other high ranking gubernamental officials, as well as the possibility of casting out Ciuca from the PNL leadership. Depending on what happens then there are 2 possible scenarios:

1. The current slate of Ministers, largely Iohannis's lackeys, is broadly maintained and Ciuca stays as PNL leader. This means a final victory for the Iohannists, the continuation of the coalition before and following 2024 and probably Ciuca as the PNL candidate. Iohannis will keep his control over the party and might get rewarded with a high ranking position afterwards. This is the most likely scenario.

2. The slate of Ministers is changed, Ciuca is ousted as PNL leader and the opposition takes over the party. This will likely cause a political crisis and the eventual breaking of the coalition, leaving PSD alone in government. Iohannis will have lost all influence and there are some 4 or 5 leaders I can think of as candidates, but the variables are just too many right now.

This is broadly how it stands right now, without having touched of a few of the more esoteric aspects or unrealistic possibilities of the debate.

[RGM2609]

Hey everyone! These days there is a lot of debate within the governing coalition as the rotation looms closer and closer. PNL is getting desperate: despite what the bought public polling says, they are collapsing. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that, if elections were to be held today, PNL would end up 4th. As a solution to this issue, PNL came up with a bold solution: they are planning to hold the parliamentary election on the same day as the local election. Given they still have over 40% of the mayors, they hope people won't bother to split tickets and PNL will be boosted by the incumbency bonus and local popularity some of these mayors have. The plans of the "Liberals" are not something the PSD favors, and will likely only accept this if they get to keep all important Ministries after the rotation, in addition to Ciolacu becoming Prime Minister, and probably with the pre-condition of an electoral alliance too.

I won't bother to go into detail on the latest governmental screw-ups, because our beloved media channels don't either! One of the biggest problems Romania faces is near-total control by the political system over the media. And I don't see any easy solution, given these televisions have grown used to getting their funding from party subsidies and the state budget, and, as the Mayor of District 1 of Bucharest, Clotilde Armand, proves, will relentlessly attack and smear any official who cuts off their lifeline. I'm not sure if there is any interest, but this specifically interests me, so I will nonetheless write a list of 3 of the main news stations and who is behind them, to get a general idea of the bullsh**t Romanians have to put up with:

- Romania TV. The most despicable channel to ever exist in this country, and that says quite a lot. It is owned by fugitive Sebastian Ghita, a former PSD MP accused of multiple crimes. This "news" channel is banned in the Republic of Moldova for spreading Russian propaganda, recently used the death of a young journalist to settle scores with a rival publication, fights day and night against neo-Marxists, progressivism, and what they call "rezisti", a generic term for USR supporters. Incidentally, both PSD and AUR are only called there to be praised for standing up in the name of national values, which obviously has nothing to do with them paying generous sums from their party subsidy.

- Antena 3 CNN. They use their affiliation with CNN, which I'm not sure how they got, to give off the impression of professionalism. Their owner is the Securitate collaborator and ex-inmate Dan Voiculescu. Content-wise they are a more polished version of Romania TV. Famous for its vicious fighting against the "Basescu regime", now they are interviewing the detained Udrea to complain about the judicial system together. Previously opposed to Iohannis and PNL, now they fawn over them and imposed a blockade on opposition parties like USR and AUR.

- Realitatea PLUS. This is actually the first news channel to be formed in Romania and for some years it used to be respectable. Then it was bought by Vintu, the mastermind of the FNI scheme, and it all went to dust. Nowadays it is owned by Maricel Pacuraru, a totally honest man and definitely not an ex-inmate. He has his idiot daughter moderate the main show, during which she routinely goes on patriotic and populist speeches, lambasting the corrupt politicians (from USR obviously) while forgetting to mention the lavish wealth she enjoys due to her daddy's honest work. She and the television's other moderator, Anca Alexandrescu, who used to be Dragnea's right-hand and still calls him on her show often, are fighting a crusade against these damn foreigners who are stealing Romania's wealth. Ex-AUR Senator Diana Sosoaca, who supports an invasion of Ukraine, is a frequent guest.

[xelas81]

Hey everyone! These days there is a lot of debate within the governing coalition as the rotation looms closer and closer. PNL is getting desperate: despite what the bought public polling says, they are collapsing. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that, if elections were to be held today, PNL would end up 4th.

So which parties are being underpolled? USR? Or anti-government voters are undecided on which party to vote for?

[Mike88]

So, instead of having just one "Fox News", Romania has 3 "Fox News" type channels. Interesting. Well, it's complicated to deal with these situations, these kind of funds could be illegalized, and they would be easy to track and a basic/normal tabloid would publish the details with little work. But, not sure if that's already illegal, but everyone does it nonetheless.

[RGM2609]

Hey everyone! These days there is a lot of debate within the governing coalition as the rotation looms closer and closer. PNL is getting desperate: despite what the bought public polling says, they are collapsing. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that, if elections were to be held today, PNL would end up 4th.

So which parties are being underpolled? USR? Or anti-government voters are undecided on which party to vote for?

I'd say both USR and AUR are underpolled. That as well as the fact that polls are modelling for an extremely low turnout (<30%) which I'd say is still unlikely to materialize. Which such low turnout, the impact of the local turnout machines of PSD and PNL gets much greater.

[RGM2609]

Speaking about the press, a report came out yesterday, which shows that in 2022 PSD gave 11 million euros to the press, mainly to the news stations. PNL was less generous in comparison, with its 7.8 million donation to institutions owned by ex-inmates and fugitives. This is disregarding the millions of euros awarded by governmental institutions and local authorities.

[RGM2609]

In a year and a few months from now, Romania will have a new President. And as the Presidential campaign is soon to begin in earnest, I decided to take a closer at the Presidents we had in order to properly decide this time for who to vote for (my track record isn't great, I voted for Iohannis four times). In this country, nobody got invested with so many expectations and shattered almost all of them as the Presidents did. Millions of people chose to put their expectations on Iliescu, only for their lives to be ruined by his malevolence and dishonesty. Similarly, millions of overjoyed Romanians danced in the center of Bucharest in 1996 when Constantinescu won, only to discover the providential man is nothing more than a toxic mix of arrogance and stupidity. Basescu's populist claims about justice were bought by many, yours truly included, for a long time, as it took a long time for his corruption and hypocrisy to be brought to light. Now, I'll write a bit about what they've been up to in their post-Presidency, maybe to extrapolate from their fates what will happen with the empty suit now in charge post-2024:

- Ion Iliescu: In a forgotten piece of history, Iliescu decided after he was succeeded by Basescu in 2004 that even at the ripe age of 75, he still had a word to say in politics, and so he ran for the PSD leadership. Following an epochal party congress, during which Iliescu mistakenly addressed the crowd as "Dear comrades", the barons he and Nastase had grown as tools decided to rebel and decisively rejected Iliescu's candidacy, instead opting for a weak man they could control, Mircea Geoana. Iliescu was rejected by the party he controlled with an iron fist for the first decade after the revolution, and had to settle for the position of "honorary president", from which he consistently undermined Geoana for the next 5 years. After Geoana was replaced by Ponta, he too took a step out of the public eye, with his appearances consistently decreasing through the next years. Now, I believe it's been 6 years since he was last seen, even at formal events.

- Emil Constantinescu: Even following the embarrassing end of his Presidency, Constantinescu decided that the nation still needed him as a savior. Given that even PNTCD, who was kicked out of Parliament, didn't want him back, he formed a brand new party, called People's Action. It was stunningly successful, with 0.5% in 2004, being surpassed by Becali's New Generation, the remnants of the PUNR of the 1990s, and Petre Roman's Democratic Force. It merged with PNL, and in the following years Constantinescu, probably worried Basescu will surpass his self-proclaimed status of regional leader, has taken a radical line against him and in favor of pro-PSD liberals. He backed people like Ponta, Tariceanu, and Crin Antonescu, the guy who nearly took Romania out of the EU so he could stay on as President. As a reward, Dragnea gave him a shockingly expensive sinecure to lead, the Institute of the Levant, which he retains to this day.

- Traian Basescu: Unlike the previous two people, Basescu managed the performance of being rejected by his party while still in office, so he created a pocket party for his protege Udrea to lead. Following her arrest, Basescu took an anti-DNA line similar to Dragnea's but still managed to keep PMP over the threshold until the 2020 legislative, became an MEP, and ran for the Bucharest Mayorship. Since the 2020 election however things took a turn for the worse: Udrea was thrown in jail for good, and he was outed as a Securitate collaborator which meant he had to be kicked out of the state residence he had. One of his daughters is also rapidly approaching jail time, and while still an MEP, he is increasingly marginalized within the EU Parliament. This whole context caused him to break down in tears in front of a reporter from Voiculescu's television.

Yeah, so this would be it, it remains to be seen whether Iohannis ditches the trend and manages to stay relevant or even become Prime Minister as he seems to dream. I doubt it.

[RGM2609]

It's rotation time! Oh wait, what was that? The teachers going into a general strike?

At the worst time for the government, right when the new cabinet had to be formed, a month before exams are held and in the middle of an already dangerous budgetary crisis, with a 20 billion gap caused by unrealistic projections and the unbelievable expenditures directed towards the PSD-PNL apparatus, the teachers decided they want money too! And given repeated failures in negotiations which were half-heartedly held by PNL officials more interested in the rotation, the general strike is a go starting tomorrow.

Meanwhile the rotation negotiations aren't exactly going well either. The initial deal was scrapped by Ciolacu's firm refusal to let the ex-PM and potential rival Grindeanu from Transportation. This opened renegotiations for the entirety of the cabinet. It seems like the pro-PSD/Iohannite part of PNL won, and the story will continue in the same way for now. However, UDMR might get kicked out to ensure the continued silence of PNL barons, who'd then get the powerful Development Ministry. I don't have more because Ciolacu once again outplayed the PNLers by announcing a suspension of the negotiations in order to deal with the general strike. So it's unclear what will happen now with that.

[RGM2609]

Aaand it's been already a week since the moment the abject mediocrity who was being aggressively pushed forward by Iohannis and the secret services should have resigned, to be replaced by what amounts to a gangster, knee-deep in corruption schemes, whose only professional accomplishment until his late 30s was being a hero of the 1989 Revolution, when he defended a building which was never under attack. It didn't happen because the teacher unions, famously controlled by PSD, decided that this is the proper time to strike. The government did give them some meager increases then declared the negotiations over, and Iohannis's patronizing "How dare you" statements only added fuel to the fire. By this point, it is clear that there is a significant minority of teachers who wouldn't want to stop striking even if the leaders decided to go home. Besides, all other unions, all of which are PSD-controlled, have also risen up and more strikes are to be expected, most worryingly of all in the health system. One would say PSD really doesn't want to take over power now, huh?

[MRCVzla]

Yesterday the government rotation finally was consumed as PSD leader Marcel Ciolacu get (as expected) the confidence of the Parliament and is new PM.
https://twitter.com/EuropeElects/status/1669388567703957504

[PSOL]

Wildcat strikes are always good ideas. Damn this Frankenstein government and the monsters it made.

[RGM2609]

Ok, sorry for not updating you on this, I've been busy AF and quite disgusted with my country's politics. But here I am, prepare for an effort post lol.

This wasn't a wildcat strike. In fact, it was everything but a wildcat strike. It started when Ciolacu and his consultants decided he didn't really want to be Prime Minister and abruptly stopped when both intra-party and presidential pressure forced him to reconsider, despite the teachers not getting even close to what they demanded. The union leaders were nothing more than PSD agents, ready to do whatever was asked of them. The losers here are the teachers, who are left disgusted and with barely more money than they started with.

Okay, so now the rotation. First of all, UDMR got kicked out of the government. It was predictable, and yet still a shocking lack of foresight on the part of USL 2.0. Considering PNL's collapse in public opinion, UDMR will be vital to any sort of government post-2024 which won't include AUR. Now, UDMR is in opposition, quite disgruntled with the incumbent coalition, and seemingly eager to align with USR (lol). Maybe the calculus of the incumbent coalition, that the Hungarians will be back in power anyway no matter what they say now, is right. But still, an unnecessary humiliation of an ally just so that PNL can give more money to its local barons.

As to the government itself, the new Prime Minister has probably the worst record I've ever seen. Nobody knows for sure what this fake populist did until the age of 38, when he joined PSD, other than defend a building during the 1989 Revolution (which was never under attack). Recent investigations uncovered that he was likely involved in lots of shady businesses in his youth. Similarly, his academic trajectory is a mystery: he started going to a private, suspicious university at 24 years old and only got licensed 9 years later, yet during those 9 years he also attended post-graduate studies. Recent articles revealed a group of over 100 people tied to Ciolacu, all of whom got rich from state contracts, sinecures, and alleged corruption schemes. Of course, most people, watching the news stations paid by PSD, would have no idea of these clear facts.

The Cabinet list is also filled with crooks. The champion here is PNL, which, under the wise guidance of the President, nominated some absurdly idiotic Ministers. There is no sign of awakening from them, as they let Iohannis once again nominate whomever he pleased. The best chance I see of a realignment is after the EU Elections, where they'll likely end up in fourth, but even so, the conclusion they might reach from that is that they need to run with PSD on an electoral list too. Meanwhile, AUR is capitalizing on societal discontent while USR is crawling out of the ditch they got into after Ciolos's departure. However, their alliance with Orban and PMP, with whom they'll probably run together in the next election, will probably lose them as many votes as it brings.

Also as a lol element: ex-Prime Minister Florin Citu, after he was used and then got tossed out by Iohannis and the other PNLers, is now shouting from the rooftops, fiercely demanding the departure from the coalition with PSD and, wait for it, another PNL-USR government. It is likely he'll get kicked out of the party after he refused to vote for the Ciolacu cabinet.

[Mike88]

Any report of how the Romania government reacted to the discovery of a large oil reservoir in the south part of the country?

[RGM2609]

Any report of how the Romania government reacted to the discovery of a large oil reservoir in the south part of the country?

Crickets as of right now. Too busy playing musical chairs with the Ministries.

[Mike88]

Any report of how the Romania government reacted to the discovery of a large oil reservoir in the south part of the country?

Crickets as of right now. Too busy playing musical chairs with the Ministries.

Ah, right. One would have thought champagne bottles would be pooping. Even with ministers, as probably more "jobs" would be available.

[RGM2609]

These days, the brand-new scandal of the coalition is that Ciolacu has been refusing to appoint some random PNLer to be Secretary-General of the Government, a key position that basically controls all the inner workings of the Cabinet. This led to an awesome statement from MEP Rares Bogdan, a former TV host and now PNL's clown, which basically amounted to this: "Ciuca nominated all kinds of convicted criminals on PSD's quota, Ciolacu should do the same for us". This guy's brand in his days as a "journalist" was a hysterical and borderline psychotic opposition against PSD, which was supposedly sending assassins after him.

Meanwhile, the judges started a strike, unhappy with a law that took away their special pensions (but kept special pensions for MPs because duh, who is voting these laws). This comes at the worst possible time, as the person left to deal with them is Alina Gorghiu (PNL), the new Minister of Justice and a nationally-recognized imbecile. A graduate of an, erm, prestigious private university from a small town. Elena Udrea used to be a teacher there ffs how much more prestigious can you get? Her bright days started after she served as the spokesperson of the first Iohannis campaign. He liked her performances so much, he ordered the party to make her its leader, to laughable results (20%). However, even that wasn't enough to send her home. She served as what amounted to ex-PM Citu's top advisor, to great results. Now, since the coalition with PSD, with which she's been tied even while shouting against it, she keeps falling upwards. She once said that, to her, Viktor Orban and Ludovic Orban are just as bad. Jesus, what a country.

Oh, and one last thing. An ex-PSD MP, who got excluded because he went to the Russian Embassy together with lunatic Diana Sosoaca right after Russia invaded Ukraine to present their "neutrality", is now a member of AUR.

[Storr]

https://twitter.com/alexsakalis/status/1683138115232313345?s=20

[RGM2609]

I didn't want to post these things in this thread, as it may for once make a lot of people reading this sick to their stomach as well as I am not sure anyone is still reading. But I think the rot of the Romanian state is still a subject of interest so here is an effortpost.

So, in the last two months the fundamental corruption of the Romanian state and its tragic consequences were brought to light in a way they haven't been since the Colectiv tragedy/the Dragnea era. The society at large is outraged and, while I hate to make this political, there is a criminal group disguised as a party which is fairly clearly tied to all of these scandals. So, for starters:

1. You may have read already about the abuse and torture discovered in the care homes for the elderly. Basically a lot of elder people with disabilities were starved, beaten up and used as forced labor to the benefit of the owners. Which owners were themselves closely connected with ex-Bucharest Mayor Gabriela Firea (PSD) and her husband, the Mayor of the small town were all this was happening. Obviously, the local authorities ignored any of this was happening, despite numerous  complaints from neighbors. Until some part of the Deep State decided they wanted to get rid of Firea, nobody did anything about the horrific abuse these people were enduring despite the fact that fairly clearly every authority involved was aware on some level. Back in February, some independent journalists even revealed all of this information, but were silenced by the media blockade.

2. This case is actually from last week: it started as a tragic, but fairly standard accident. A drugged-out rich kid killed 2 young people in traffic. However, as the details of the case were revealed, society lost it: turns out that same kid was stopped not once by twice by policemen a few hours before the accident, drugs were found in his car and yet the local officers were ordered by the higher-ups to let him go each time. The reason for this is fairly clear: his parents seem to serve as intermediaries for the businesses of various corrupt politicians, and in the guy's entourage of rich junkies were the kids of a lot of PSD politicians and/or a lot of police officials. PSD even sent an affiliated lawyer to defend the guy in court.

3. A young pregnant woman died in a hospital after accusing severe pain for days prior. She accused it for nothing, given that no doctor even looked at her. It is unknown whether it was because of pure lack of interest, because of the fact she didn't bribe them, or both. The hospital at large was a mess because the PSD County Chairwoman appointed a locksmith (I swear I didn't make this up) as its director. In any case, it's fairly clear this would have never happened had the hospital been either had a barely competent administrator or barely interested doctors.

Meanwhile, as I was discussing earlier, Romania now has the largest by far budget deficit in the EU, and what amounts to a huge budgetary gap. They are trying to close it down by placing even more taxes on small enterprises. In case anybody is wondering about the cause of this mess, in 2022 the budgetary expenditures were raised by 15% compared to 2021, a pandemic year.

TLDR: Romania is both a failed and a captured state, the authorities are more of a danger to citizens than a help, the budget is imploding and, oh, fck PSD and their voters.

[RGM2609]

Corruption kills once again: today an unauthorized gas station exploded twice, killing at least one person and injuring 46 more, including a lot of firefighters who arrived after the first deflagration. It gets even better: the reason it was allowed to function despite not being authorized was because it was owned by the son of a PSD Mayor from another town.

To top it off, after the news station/cesspool Romania TV, owned by a fugitive, called him to victimize him, "Daddy" had the following thing to say: "about the firefighters, I don't know, that's their problem". Scumbag.

At this point they might as well shoot at random in the streets. They did beat us up once or twice already. Oh, and even after Colectiv, Romania still has zero capacity to treat the injured so the authorities are flailing around to send them across Europe.