All unions in education, both in pre-university and university education, will protest on Wednesday in front of the Cotroceni Palace, to draw attention to the non-compliance with the promises made by President Nicușor Dan and the financial problems in the system. The most recent dissatisfaction concerns the halving of the doctorate allowance, from 950 to 500 lei.
“The president established at the first meeting that we will meet again in 2 months with the data on the table and that he will exercise his role as a mediator between the Government and the unions. Almost 4 months have passed and he has not mediated anything”said Marius Nistor, the president of the Trade Union Federation “Spiru Haret”, for Edupedu.
The union leader explained that the protest is taking place “because no measure from the Bolojan Law has been repealed, because we have problems with the budget projection for 2026 and because the last austerity measure is the reduction of the amounts of colleagues with doctorates”.
Student organizations will also participate in the protest, as well as the other two main trade union federations: FSLI and the Trade Union Federation “Alma Mater”.
“At the moment we don’t have a minister who fights for education, who fights for budget allocations for education in 2026. We are interested in a minister who is a professional and moral authority, a minister who empathizes with students, students and teachers, not a minister who necessarily has a PNL-PSD-USR-UDMR-ist affiliation. Politics should matter the least when it comes to the position of minister of education”Nistor also said.
The meetings promised by Nicușor Dan have been delayed
The president’s first promise of a meeting with the unions was to be honored in November 2025, “at most two months” since the beginning of the school year. The meeting did not take place.
“You’re right, I said two months, two months have passed, I haven’t done what I said I would do,” declared the president on November 12, 2025, announcing the appointment of a presidential adviser on education to collect the data necessary for a discussion with “data on the table”.
Also, no meeting announced for January 31, 2026 with the unions, either “with the numbers on the table”, it did not unfold.
PNL failed to appoint a replacement for the position of Minister of Education, vacant for two months. Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan took over the portfolio on an interim basis, after the resignation of Daniel David in December 2025. In this context, the rector of the University of Suceava, Mihai Dimian, appears in the rumor mill as a possible future Minister of Education, being supported, according to Europa FM sources, by the PSD, although the position belongs to the PNL.
The unions also announced a warning strike during mock national exams. This will take place two hours a day: between March 16 and 18, 2026 for the VIIIth grade and between March 23 and 26 for the Baccalaureate simulation.
