PSD's Ciolacu tells PM Citu his 10 minute speech costs Romania 600,000 euros in loans

National chairman of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) Marcel Ciolacu told a plenary sitting of the Chamber of Deputies on Monday that Prime Minister Citu borrowed 600,000 euros in 10 minutes he spoke during a Prime Minister's Question Time debate.      "Mr Prime Minister, you spoke for about 10 minutes. During all this time you got Romania indebted by 600,000 euro; 1,000 euros per second, money stolen from the pockets of every Romanian that will be paid for by our children and grandchildren. Mr Citu, you have no money to give the back pay to the miners in Jiu Valley, who have barricaded themselves underground for 7 days, although in the election campaign you found 2 billion for the National Liberal Party (PNL) mayors. Electoral bribe! You got that money from nowhere. Mr Citu, I am telling to your face: Give people their money! Urgently! Don't mistreat them anymore! It's their hard-earned money. That's the least you can do, since you have no vision at all! That's why all you can do is come before Parliament with a budget of austerity; a budget of poverty. A budget that does not offer any development perspective to Romania," Ciolacu told a Prime Minister's Question Time at a plenary sitting of the Chamber of Deputies initiated by PSD.      He added that Romania "is adrift today" because the government has allocated the smallest financial package in the European Union for economic recovery and the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.      Ciolacu called Citu the "absolute champion of hatred" who hates the public employees, whom he now threatens with pay cuts and layoffs, and hates the private sector, which he lied to for a whole year that he would help.      "Admit that you did not even read the public pay law, the law you want to change! Had you read it, you would not have lied to Romanians that there are pay bonuses of 85% [of the base pay], as they are capped by law at 30%. You wouldn't have lied that there was a bonus for the use of computers, as that was repealed 20 years ago. The only bonus you have discarded was for the prefecture workers, which you yourself started paying last year. Mr Citu you have rejected the government agenda the first day of your term! You have cut public healthcare spending by 11% and you have earmarked the lowest percentage of GDP in the last 30 years in education spending!," he added. AGERPRES (RO - author: Dana Piciu, editor: Florin Marin; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)