After the Romanian government cut pensions by 15% and wages by 25%, hundreds of protesters attempted to storm parliament.
They needn't have bothered. In an nearly unprecedented ruling, the Romanian Supreme Court threw out the pension cuts.
the Constitutional Court said the pension cut was unconstitutional, a ruling which cannot be appealed.
Romania wants to cut spending to qualify for a $20bn loan from the International Monetary Fund.
Now Romania is trying to convince the IMF to bail them out anyway. There is no guarantee that the IMF will be convinced.
hurrah, the IMF wants their neo-con agenda or else!
Nope, no global reigning in of the banksters, from where all of this originates...nope, can't do that. Only screwing the middle classes can get some cash.
from RO.
Allegedly for lack of alternatives, our government has just announced the increase to 24% of VAT on goods and services, effective from July 1, besides the 25% cut in public wages agreed earlier with the IMF. This will lead to higher inflation and unemployment, and obviously shatters any prospects for a quick recovery.
No actions however to address massive, EU-condoned corruption by government, banks or industry, which drains billions each year, which is a lot for a small country.
Felt the urge to reply as this was about my country :-)
George
"Now Romania is trying to
"Now Romania is trying to convince the IMF to bail them out anyway" ...: you make it look like the all-mighty hero IMF needs to be begged and convinced by a profligate Romania to bail it out...try this: after 500,000 Romanians died in the WWII to defend Europe, Romania was sacrificed and was given as a gift to Russia by the Westerners, with America's blessing. The intelectuals and middle class killed in concentration camps, Soviet style. My grandfather used to tell me stories about how the partisans fought in the mountains for liberty until the Americans sold them arms, but when they got them, there were no bullets!!! no help form the "free world" that we fought to save. 45 years of communism later, still alive after living on rationalized food, half a loaf of bread a week, no hot water, no heat, finally the western world has mercy of us and the "revolution" happens! We didn't have any foreign debt. Now, 20 years later, we are capitalists, all our national riches have been squandered by "foreign investors" , the economy distroyed, and Halliburton built...2 miles of highway for 25 billion dollars (USD!), overpaying Russians for natural gas and disobedience, we have finally found out that Europe didn't need us free, they just needed 24 millions more slaves, good only to buy their "junk" food, Coca Cola, and some hundreds to die in Afganistan. Yeah, right, the austerity doesn't go - NO MORE- well in Romania, thank you very much!!! IMF is temporarily "saving" Romania (or should I say our national corpse), so that the government could pay the private banking cartels and the 50% interest rates.