As President, through the right to legislative initiative, I will ensure the restoration of the indexation of pensions according to the value of inflation, the PDCM candidate for President Ion Chicu stated in an electoral debate organized by IPN News Agency. According to him, an injustice in relation to pensioners was committed in 2023 as the indexation of pensions was 15% at a time when inflation was 30%. Chicu promises to pay the outstanding amount to pensioners and assures that as President, he will submit to Parliament legislative initiatives aimed at increasing the living standards of citizens.
The candidate of the Party for Development and Consolidation of Moldova (PDCM) said that his priority as President will be the social protection of citizens, given that over 750,000 people are dependent on social payments, through pensions, social allowances and benefits. Through a legislative initiative proposed to the MPs for adoption, he will ensure the cancellation of the Restart reform and the restoration of the indexation of pensions according to the value of inflation.
“It is the duty of the state to ensure that these citizens lead a decent life. First of all, the 15% on indexation, which the current government did not give to pensioners in 2023, must be restored. At that time, the rate of inflation was 30% and indexation was only 15%. Secondly, justice must be restored for citizens who worked for many years in sovkhozes, kolkhozes, farms and, when they reached retirement age, they cannot confirm their length of service. The anti-reform in the field of social assistance Restart, as a result of which 10,000 people with severe disabilities remained out of state care, must be canceled. It is necessary to encourage people who have the retirement age to work because we have a shortage of manpower,” said the candidate.
Ion Chicu criticized the government’s initiatives to liquidate some of the educational institutions and promises to maintain primary schools in localities. He noted that the reform of technical vocational education is necessary to ensure the connection of the labor market to the educational offer.
“If we don’t pay attention to education, it will be dark in the country. The closure of schools means the opening of prisons. If the state does not provide at least one primary school in localities, this state is not worthy of its citizens. At least one primary school must be kept in the village, vocational technical education must be developed because we no longer have staffs for the economy and industry. The President has a very important instrument called legislative initiative and, if this knows how to provide solutions to these problems, he/she goes to Parliament every day and asks the MPs to pay those 15% on the indexation of pensions, which, in 2023, instead of giving them to pensioners, they gave to ministers for salaries,” stated Ion Chicu.
He noted that as Minister of Finance and Prime Minister, he came up with initiatives that contributed to increasing the quality of life of citizens, mentioning the tax reform and the launch of the government program First Home.
“I returned to the country in January 2018. The first project I initiated at the Ministry of Finance was to reduce the tax burden on salaries. This meant lower taxes for employees in the economy, which in three months had the effect of higher revenues collected into the state budget and the social insurance budget. I want to debunk a crass lie of the current government that says that in 2020, the indexation of pensions was 1%. It is false. In 2020, unlike 2024, we had two stages of pension indexation, one on April 1 and another one on October 1,” explained the PCDM candidate.
The series of debates entitled “We analyze electoral demand and offers” were carried out by IPN News Agency during October 8-10, 2024 with support from the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and the European Union.
