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09. 04. 12. - 13:00

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09. 04. 12. - 13:00

PM says salaries should grow but does not promise anything yet

Michael Leidig

During a visit on Saturday to his hometown Iasi (North East), Prime Minister (PM) Mihai Razvan Ungureanu said he would try to give back to the employees from the public sector the share of their salaries that have been cut in 2010.

He said: "This is not a promise but a hope. I do not make promises. I have no electoral reasons to do so," Ungureanu said according to local press.

A day earlier, the PM said in an interview with Aljazeera English that he hoped to put a smile on Romanians’ faces again, sometime in the summer, by increasing the salaries to the level before August 2010, when the public wages had been cut by 25 per cent.

According to sources close to the cabinet, Ungureanu wrote to the governor of the central bank about his intention to raise the salaries in the public sector by a percentage that still has to be decided. Governor Mugur Isarescu apparently answered by saying if taken, the decision and the responsibility sits solely with the government.

President Traian Basescu told the parliament recently the salaries in the public sector should go back to the level before the austerity measures, before 1 June 2012. Romania will hold local elections on 10 June and media and analysts speculate the salary increase is regarded as a last resort for the Democrat Liberal Party (PDL), the largest party in government to gain back some public support. Currently PDL has some 15 per cent electoral support in the polls whilst the opposition alliance, the Social Liberal Union has over 53 per cent.

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