Financiarul

The executive’s decision to take responsibility for the unified pension law is “a desperate move of a dying Government and a trick that fools nobody any longer”, Senate Chairman Mircea Geoana said on Tuesday.

Earlier in the day, Geoana received a letter sent by Prime Minister Emil Boc announcing him of plans to call a vote of confidence in the Government for the unified pension law, shortly after the document had reached the Speaker of the Deputies” Chamber Roberta Anastase The Social Democratic (PSD) leader said the executive is trying “to divert the attention from the no-confidence vote and from the extremely poor economic performance”.

“In our view, assuming responsibility for a unified pension law is the worst solution. If the lesson of assuming responsibility for the unified public salary law, that ended in a “unified” strike, means nothing for Mr (Traian) Basescu and Mr (Emil) Boc, we are not willing to rally the retirees in a similar protest. We”ll meet the commitments made at the International Monetary Fund and by year-end we are going to have a law to be debated seriously, by all parties, by all the Romanian political families”, Geoana said.

The Senate chairman added the PSD agrees with eliminating the parliamentarians” pensions and it generally agrees with a unified retirement law, but it cannot accept “to force the Romanian women into retirement at the age of 65″. He stressed that Boc had called a vote of confidence on the education law, the law on the restructuring of the public agencies and the public sector salary law “in order to offer President Traian Basescu the Parliament”s rostrum so that he may boast of the state reform”.

“How long are we going to accept such mockery of the state sector employees and of the retirees? The best solution is to hold a serious debate, to send Basescu and Boc home”, he said.