Romanian Social Democrats Push Local Merger Reform After 15 Years of Opposition

PSD leader Sorin Grindeanu announced at the end of October that his party supports adopting legislation for a broad administrative reform, including the merger of small localities and towns with fewer than 10,000 residents, and even the dissolution of some counties.

The move surprised public opinion because PSD has opposed any local administration optimization for over ten years to avoid losing the support of mayors, who are the party's main political survival engine.

“The administrative reform would be the biggest surprise in the history of PSD.”

Eurodeputy Dragoș Benea, appointed coordinator of the party's internal group on administrative-territorial reform, said there are more than 450 administrative-territorial units with fewer than 1,500 residents and another 1,100 with up to 3,000 residents. He added that 55 percent of towns no longer meet the legal threshold of 10,000 residents but still maintain a budget-consuming urban administration.

Bucharest Mayor Ciprian Ciucu, a member of the PNL, told SpotMedia that the association of communes is controlled by PSD because most of its members are party mayors, and the party has maintained influence in rural areas through them.

Ciucu also said that Emil Drăghici, president of the association, constantly attacked former Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan on this issue while Bolojan was in office.

Grindeanu announced that the eternal local administration reform project, along with a government institutions reform, will be adopted through "assumption of responsibility," an extreme parliamentary procedure that avoids parliamentary debates and exposes the government only to a censure motion.

Benea explained on Monday that the working group is at the beginning of its activity and that the voluntary merger of communes with up to 1,500 residents remains the commitment already made in the governing program.