Romanian Mayor Stages Hunger Strike Over Government’s Austerity Cuts

By: EW News Desk Team   Date: 25 November 2011

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25 November 2011

The mayor of the central Romanian town of Brad in the Hunedoara County has gone on a hunger strike, after recent cuts in heating subsidies by the government left the majority of his citizens without fuel oil to keep warm during the winter.

Mayor Florin Cazacu, who presides over roughly 17,000 residents, told Reuters that because of the recent austerity drive by the government, his town hall had been short of 3 million lei ($925,200) from the state budget, which would have gone to the purchase of fuel oil for over 10,000 citizens.

Apartments in Brad are not connected to any mains gas, while people using electric heaters often cause frequent power cuts due to the town's poor electricity grid. As a result, many of Brad’s citizens were now braving winter temperatures of below negative 30 degrees Celsius without any decent heating.

"People are suffering from cold, this is why I began this protest," said Cazacu. "I took an oath ... to do everything in my power and competence for the sake of the inhabitants."

Cazacu intends to stay on a hunger strike “for as long as it takes”.

“I will… give up the protest only if the government grants us the necessary funds," said the 46-year-old mayor.

Romania introduced tough austerity measures last year after promising the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is leading a 5 billion euro aid deal, to liberalize its gas and power markets, raise administered prices and scrap government subsidies for centralized heating. The European Union's second poorest member state have also implemented salary cuts to its civil servants plus a raise in its value-added tax to one of the highest levels in the EU.

Many Romanians have drawn parallels between the current situation and during the last few years of communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu’s reign, where heating was often shut down under an austerity drive aimed at repaying Romania's foreign debt.

While living standards have since risen sharply since Ceausescu’s overthrow in 1989, winters remain tough for many Romanians, with the nation’s winter death toll for 2010 reaching up to 26 fatalities after temperatures plummeted to below negative 34 degrees Celcius.

 


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