Romania’s coalition government survived two no-confidence votes as it pushes to accelerate parliamentary approval of a package of public sector reforms and tax hikes aimed at curbing bloated state spending, Universul reported.

Civil servants are threatening strikes amid strong public resistance to austerity measures designed to reduce the budget deficit of 9.3% — the highest in the European Union — and preserve the country’s minimum investment-grade rating.

Fast-tracking the legislation through parliament without debate triggered a no-confidence vote from the far-right opposition AUR, but the ruling coalition holds a comfortable majority, and the opposition lacks the 100 votes required for success. The first two attempts fell well short of the necessary support.

“It is unclear what the opposition’s goal is. Is it because we are doing too many reforms, or too few?” Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan commented after the vote.

The cabinet, which came to power at the end of June, has already approved an initial package of mostly tax increases, but the four coalition parties remain deadlocked over broader public sector cuts.

The government has reached agreement on five legislative packages intended to save the budget around 10.6 billion lei, raise the retirement age for judges and prosecutors, cut jobs in public administration, and introduce new tax hikes starting in 2026.

To avoid the risk of all measures being simultaneously overturned by the Constitutional Court, the ruling parties decided to split them into five separate packages. |BGNES