The President of Romania, Nicușor Dan, spoke about one of the most sensitive topics in the public space, recently: the special pensions of magistrates. The head of state explained how he sees the solution to the deadlock generated by the pension reform.
The President of Romania, Nicușor Dan. PHOTO: Inquam Photos/George Călin
The topic of magistrates’ pensions came back to the fore after the first attempt to amend was declared unconstitutional by the CCR, following a referral by the High Court of Cassation and Justice. In this context, Nicușor Dan emphasized that the situation must be addressed quickly.
“We have established that it is not normal to have a pension equal to the salary. It has now become very easy to say that the magistrates are to blame for everything, that is not true either. We must find a balance in this dialogue. The people of the CSM are elected by their colleagues, it is a representative institution for the guild”. said Nicușor Dan, on Sunday evening, during a show on Romania TV.
The head of state specified that the next step is to establish a clear threshold by which the pensions in payment should decrease. “We now have to correct some mistakes that were made a long time ago. I mean, if I’m not mistaken, between 2017 and 2022 we simply had a higher pension than salary in the justice system. I gave some interviews to some foreign journalists and I told them this and they made me repeat it. They thought they didn’t understand English well. Everyone agrees that we need to reduce magistrates’ pensions, the question is by how much, and we need to raise the retirement age, the question is how gradual this should be,” he mentioned.
The president admitted that the difficulty of the reform also comes from the reserved attitude of the magistrates towards a reduction of these benefits, but he emphasized that the only viable solution is to continue the direct dialogue with their representatives.
“We need to dialogue, these people are elected by their fellow magistrates,” declared Nicușor Dan, adding that only through open discussions can a variant be found that meets both society’s expectations and constitutional principles.
President Nicușor Dan participated on Sunday, November 16, in a show by Romania TV. All the president’s statements can be read here.
