Teachers’ strike threatens to blow up Romania’s fragile ruling coalition

Teachers’ strike threatens to blow up Romania’s fragile ruling coalition
There are unconfirmed rumours that Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca plans to resign on May 26. / gov.ro
By Iulian Ernst in Bucharest May 23, 2023

Unconfirmed sources indicate that Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca plans to resign on May 26, even though Romania’s two main ruling parties have suspended negations on the formation of a new government until a teachers’ strike is settled. 

This would leave Romania in political limbo as the leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Marcel Ciolacu — the partner of Ciuca’s PNL in the government — is unwilling to take over the prime minister position while teachers are out on the streets. 

60-70% of the teachers in Romania went on strike on May 22, requesting higher wages in line with existing legislation, a move that has put heavy pressure on the already fragile alliance between the centre-left PSD and centre-right PNL. 

A change of government was imminent, with the PNL’s Ciuca expected to be replaced by Ciolacu until the next general elections in 2024. The handover of power in mid-2023 was agreed between the two parties when they struck a coalition deal brokered by President Klaus Iohannis in 2021. 

The teachers’ strike complicates the plans, as neither of the parties is happy to pay the political cost of refusing teachers’ requests.  

The budget for education should have been 6% of GDP since 2011, but successive governments have deferred adopting a legal provision to enable wages to rise in line with public pay legislation.

This comes on top of a second political hot potato the government is under pressure to tackle, namely the pledge to cut the package of benefits called “special pensions” — a promise inherited from the reformist Union Save Romania (USR), the author of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) but now in opposition. 

The PSD has now decided to suspend talks on the formation of the new government. Ciuca’s resignation without a new government in place would create some political instability and require the intervention of Iohannis, whose public credibility has been significantly eroded.

The government clearly expects teachers to blink first. The ministry carried out no talks with the teachers on May 22, the first day of the strike, and it plans to consult only parents’ representatives on May 23.

Also on May 22, lawmakers passed the Education Laws, a package of bills drafted under Iohannis’ direct supervision but criticised by experts as bringing no substantial reforms.

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