"Blind austerity pushes Romania towards the most severe crisis in the last 25 years," warns Cristian Socol

University professor Cristian Socol warns that Romania is undergoing the harshest and most inequitable austerity in the last 25 years, which has already generated three consecutive months of decline in purchasing power and risks pushing the country into a major economic, social, and political crisis. He accuses the Government of placing the burden of adjustments almost exclusively on low and middle-income Romanians, young people, pensioners, and fiscally compliant companies, ignoring European models of equitable budget consolidation.

Socol warns that without protecting vulnerable groups and without a coherent plan to mitigate shocks, Romania could find itself again in a situation like that of 2010, with harsh measures imposed by international institutions, massive social losses, and economic stagnation, and proposes a comprehensive "survival plan" for the 8.6 million vulnerable Romanians.