The fines imposed on the citizens by the law enforcement bodies during the state of emergency were instituted by the state not to collect money into the budget, but to make the people behave appropriately and not to break the rules, Socialist MP Vasile Bolea, stated in a public debate titled “Government’s performance during six months since its appointment and during two months of state of emergency: pros and cons” that was staged by IPN News Agency.

The MP noted that that if the person violates the imposed restrictions and thus endangers the life and health of other citizens, the responsible bodies should intervene. If the fined person is not satisfied with the penalty, they can anytime challenge it in court.

Vasile Bolea said that when the state of emergency was declared, a number of amendments were made, including to the Law on the State of Emergency and the Contravention Code, so as to make the penalties for violating the emergency regime harsher. “It is society that should decide if it was good or bad. Evidently, those who broke the rules are dissatisfied. A rather large part of the population considers the fines should have been increased even more in that period,” he stated.

In another development, Vasile Bolea said the Government during the state of emergency assumed responsibility for those categories of people who are most seriously affected by the pandemic. “With a budget deficit of over 16 billion lei, the Government had to take a series of measures so that the salaries, pensions and social benefits were paid as usual. Therefore, the decisions taken by the Commission for Exceptional Situations were converted into normative documents and Parliament later adopted them,” he stated.

The MP admitted that the Government acted in a hesitative way initially, when it decided that only some of the doctors and other public sector employees will get the one-time allowance of 16,000 lei because they contracted COVID-19 at the workplace, but later corrected its decision. “The salaries and pensions were paid on time. It was decided to help categories of people who work in the private sector or as individual entrepreneurs so that they could get unemployment benefit,” stated Vasile Bolea.

The debate titled “Government’s performance during six months since its appointment and during two months of state of emergency: pros and cons” was the 135th installment of the series of debates “Development of political culture through public debates” that are supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.