Traian Băsescu, about the reduction of state employees: "Administrative reform means the merging of counties, regionalization. Reducing staff is not an administrative reform, it is cost optimization."

Former president Traian Băsescu criticized on Sunday the blockage of the administrative reform within the coalition, stating that staff reduction does not constitute a real reform, but merely an optimization of expenses.

He emphasized that true administrative reform would involve the merging of counties and regionalization, processes that can be carried out without amending the Constitution. Băsescu argued that it is unacceptable for there to be communities that cannot sustain themselves and that these should be merged to have sufficient revenues to pay the salaries of the municipal staff. He also contested the idea of a 10% reduction in the central apparatus, highlighting the difficulties in implementing this measure in local administration, where structures vary significantly. Băsescu concluded that the current approach is either naive or a deception, and that staff reduction will not be applied uniformly.