Ionuț Pucheanu compares Ilie Bolojan to Nicolae Ceaușescu over economic decisions made “at any cost”

Ionuț Pucheanu, PSD first vice-president and mayor of the municipality of Galați, compared Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan to Nicolae Ceaușescu in an interview with Adevărul. The statement concerns economic decisions adopted to achieve an objective within the shortest possible timeframe, regardless of the costs. The Social Democratic leader drew a parallel between the Government’s current plan to reduce the budget deficit and Nicolae Ceaușescu’s decision to rapidly repay Romania’s foreign debt. According to Pucheanu, in 1981, a representative of the US government allegedly estimated that the debt could be paid off over a period of 20–25 years. After reviewing the plan, Ceaușescu allegedly decided that repayment should be completed by 1990. Asked directly whether he was comparing Bolojan to the former dictator, Pucheanu answered affirmatively, specifying that the reference was “strictly” to the decision to achieve the set objective. “One wanted to repay the foreign debt, the other to reduce the deficit at any cost,” the mayor of Galați said. It was an analogy about the method, not the ideology: achieving the target first, whatever the price.⁣️,