Anti-government protest targets Romanian parliament

Thousands of angry Romanians protested today outside the parliament against salary and pension cuts as the legislature started debating a no-confidence motion in the government.

More than 3,500 public sector workers and retirees blocked traffic and some tried to storm a gate. Protesters threw water at police and briefly scuffled with anti-riot officers. One group set fire to dolls bearing the names of ministers and impaled on poles.

Protesters threatened to storm the parliament if the government is not voted out. The government is expected to survive the vote.

The campaigners oppose cuts in wages of a quarter and in pensions of 15%, which the government says are necessary to keep the budget deficit at 6.8%.

Union leaders said they expected about 20,000 people to take part in the protest in three shifts, despite the heat. Some union members attending the debates booed prime minister Emil Boc during his speech.

Mr Boc said the cuts must be made to meet the demands of a multibillion-euro loan from the International Monetary Fund.

He said Romania should choose “the lesser of two evils” because otherwise it could reach the point of becoming unable to pay wages, benefits and pensions.

Last week Mr Boc warned that unless cuts are made, the budget deficit would soar to 9.1% of GDP and Romania would need to borrow €11bn this year.

The government said 195,000 public sector jobs need to be cut this year and in 2011 to ease pressure on the state budget at a time of deep recession.

Romania has 1.36 million public workers in a population of about 22 million. Unemployment is about 8%.

The country took a €20bn loan from the IMF, the EU and the World Bank last year to pay state wages when its economy shrank by 7.1%.