Ilie Bolojan, the interim president of the PNL, announced the party’s support for PSD’s administrative reform, but opposed the progressive taxation of high incomes, stressing the need to make the state more efficient.
Ilia Bolojan. Photo: PNL Bihor video capture
The acting president of the National Liberal Party (PNL), Ilie Bolojan, said on Monday evening, during the “Jurnalul de Sără” show on Digi 24, that the formation he leads will support any project that contributes to “greater efficiency in local public administration”. In this context, the PNL leader mentioned the administrative reform project proposed by the PSD, which he said was an important initiative, but which required a “less political” approach and a broad consensus.
“The National Liberal Party will support any project that means greater efficiency in the local public administration and there is room for improvement, because I was in this administration for 20 years, I know it very well, which will mean decentralization, moving the decision more close to the citizens, which will mean moving responsibilities to structures in regions or counties. And I think that these things are not very easy to do, because we have promised them many times before, if you remember, many cycles, so many times that people no longer believe us. And then I think, from my point of view, fatherhood is less important“, said Ilie Bolojan.
The PNL leader emphasized that the administrative reform should address the need for decentralization, by shifting responsibilities to county and regional structures, in order to bring decisions closer to citizens. Bolojan explained that the implementation of such measures is not simple, and the traditional political parties must collaborate and come up with solutions adapted to the diversity of the public administration in Romania.
“Here things are not done in a strictly political manner. Those of us who have representatives in the local public administration, the classical parties, must sit at the table, we must see what we propose, how we respond to the different situations in the country, because the problems of small town halls are totally different from those of small towns, which are totally different from those in the county residences. Because Romania, in fact, means more “Romanians” in the local public administration and there are no magical solutions. Whatever solutions will be adopted, a parliamentary critical mass will be needed to put them in place and the PNL will support any measure of this type, because that is what we promoted“, Bolojan continued.
Regarding the progressive taxation of high incomes, Ilie Bolojan was firmly against such a measure, explaining that PNL does not support increasing taxes for people who earn more than 5,000 euros per month. The liberal leader pointed out that the priority must be to make the state more efficient, reduce operating expenses and improve public administration, before such a fiscal measure is taken into account.
“We do not support such a measure. I think the first thing we need to do is see how we reduce our state operating expenses and how we have an efficient state. If we don’t do that, it’s only a matter of time before we end up raising taxes and fees“, emphasized Ilie Bolojan.
Currently, the governing coalition is discussing the possibility of introducing progressive income taxation, a measure that would mainly target high earners. The Social Democrats are the main supporters of this idea, and within the coalition they are discussing, among other things, the additional taxation of monthly incomes that exceed 5,000 euros.
