The news that Romania is in a technical recession was greeted by the leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) in a typical fashion: taking no responsibility and putting the blame on others to extinguish the fire started by leaders from the previous PSD government under former PSD Marcel Ciolacu:
- “Certainly, there is a main culprit for the wrong direction in which we have been pushed. The stubbornness taken to an extreme, fierce resistance to any rational argument, the permanent obsession with image and personal calculations instead of real dialogue and solid economic solutions. This is the real state of affairs after six months in office,” said Sorin Grindeanu.
In his message, Grindeanu avoided mentioning his own name but insinuated Liberal PM, Ilie Bolojan was to blame.
Bolojan, however, quickly understood he was the unspoken target and gave a dry accountant-like response:
- “All the decisions that were taken were based on meetings and coalition decisions, by mutual agreement. So I understand that when something good happens, we all rush to take credit, and when something that sounds bad needs to be done, we shirk responsibility. I will never shun responsibility ” the prime minister replied to his main coalition partner.
In an ad-hoc burst of boldness, it must be admitted that Grindeanu has a competitor capable of dethroning him: Marcel Ciolacu, former PSD chairman and more importantly– the ex-prime minister who left the country with a budget deficit and an economic structure indicating an imminent collapse across the board.
- “They turned the 2024 data, from economic growth into a recession just to try to blur the economic disaster of Bolojan’s mandate!” –Ciolacu replied, instead of a public apology for his legacy after years in office
The PSD’s problem remains the same: it cannot overcome its legacy as the successor of the Romanian Communist Party.
Like the Communist Party, the PSD is always right never wrong, always on the side of the people, although the people could not dream of ever living the exclusive life led by the prominent figures of the old nomenklatura and today’s PSD (short lines and exclusive access to shops in the old days, and luxury cars, expensive vacations and restaurants, plus private jets in post-communist times).
The PSD’s problem is that its leaders – old or young, educated or less educated – always seem obsolete no matter how new they are in office. They share the same set of values, regardless of the variations in their public discourse.
Primitive populism is there, subversive cynicism is on duty, and an endless appetite of avoiding responsibility is always there.
But let’s leave history and go back to the present.
From obviously cynical and profoundly strategically uninspired political calculations, Grindeanu and his PSD have recently demonstrated, on two occasions, how irresponsible they can be with the country’s finances and how little they understand the real economy.
Starting from the two examples below, we can also better understand the fact that, from one leader to another, the PSD evolves little or not at all. The party was irresponsible under Ciolacu, the same (possibly with some nuances) and remains under Grindeanu.
There are, as I said, two examples, and the targeted amount amounts to the colossal figure of 1.231 billion (one billion in dollars, the rest in euros):
- The billion dollars is related to the tax that Donald Trump imposes for a term of permanent membership in his Peace Council (I leave a link HERE, and another at the end). Sorin Grindeanu said that he would quickly give this a lot of money for this big nothing: “After we have to express ourselves quickly, from my point of view we have to express ourselves positively.” As he wouldn’t give it out of his own pocket, of course it wouldn’t hurt him to give it to him. The problem is that the Romanian economy, whose pocket is the one targeted by Grindeanu, does not have them either. But it doesn’t hurt for the PSD, because Ciolacu didn’t hurt the pen for obscene allocations from pierced pockets either. In addition, it is also worth noting that there are so many countries that have not accepted such financial hemorrhage to feed the Trumpist council, even though they have much larger savings than Romania’s and infinitely smaller budget deficits. But, that saying, who doesn’t have a Grindeanu, doesn’t even have reasons to buy one…
- The remaining 231 million, in this case euros, comes from European funds, more precisely from the PNRR. This money has been blocked for months for Romania by the other odious indigenous nomenclature, the one in the judiciary. The same Sorin Grindeanu (by the way, do you remember the GEO 13 era?) and the same PSD proved to be extremely lenient towards the clique in the judiciary that blocks the reform of magistrates’ pensions, thus blocking the access of the 231 million euros by the Romanian Government. You would say, after the behavior of Grindeanu and the PSD on this issue, that both the leader and the party are sitting on a mountain. And the mountain I’m standing on is a mountain of money. It’s just that the real Romania, in whose name Grindeanu and PSD expresses itself, stands on a pit, not on a mountain. And the pit was diligently dug by Grindeanu’s predecessor, Ciolacu, and, mainly, by the same party, PSD, which passed from one boss to another.
In a few years, as prime minister, Ciolacu depleted the budget treasury with billions and billions of euros/dollars. In just a few weeks, and without being prime minister, Grindeanu was willing to throw 1.231 billion (in dollars and euros) on the manele as at the dedications.
As I said at the beginning, I also observe it at the end: the inability of the PSD leaders to reform is devastating.
The late Darwin would turn in his grave if he knew what specimens he missed.
Romania’s economy grows 0.6 pct in 2025, slips into recession
