Interim PM Bolojan: former health minister Rogobete is 'one of the arsonists' of Romania's hospital strike

Strike declaration and demands

On 28 July the Sanitas union began a general strike in all Romanian hospitals. The main demand is the modification of provisions in the draft salary law that protesters say will cut healthcare workers' incomes.

No pay cuts, premier insists

During a Digi24 interview on 29 July, interim prime minister Ilie Bolojan rejected the pay-cut claim as a lie. He stated that no income would fall under the new law; about 20–30% of budget-sector employees currently earn above the new grid and would receive compensation differentials to keep their current level until lower-paid colleagues catch up. Approximately two-thirds of public-sector staff would see increases. Bolojan specifically denied an assertion that an ICU doctor's monthly income would drop by around 4,000 lei, saying no government expert's calculation shows such a decrease.

“This strike that has unfolded in recent days is based on disinformation and lies.”

Systemic flaws in healthcare

The premier argued that health allocations from the National Health Insurance House and the Health Ministry have tripled or even quadrupled in past years, yet most citizens see no full service improvement. The real problems, he said, are deep imbalances: large county hospitals are overcrowded while many small hospitals have very low occupancy and inefficiency. By memorandum he approved 460 new posts at the Bucharest University Hospital, but he accused some hospitals of unjustly requesting staff increases.

Bolojan points finger at Rogobete

Bolojan reserved his sharpest criticism for the former PSD health minister. He said Rogobete had done nothing to correct the imbalances when in office but now is ".

“Mr Rogobete, in all these days, has behaved irresponsibly, being one of the arsonists of this health strike, both through his statements and through all his behaviours.”

The interim premier said Rogobete knew what needed to be done and is currently feeding the strike with disinformation.

Rogobete's counterattack

Alexandru Rogobete published a Facebook video on 28 July in which he accused Bolojan of hollowing out the word reform. He said the premier humiliated doctors by claiming hospitals spend more than 90% of their budgets on salaries and was trying to turn people against them.

“You have brainwashed people with the word reform. You used the word reform so often that it lost its meaning.”

“Reform does not mean emptying hospitals of doctors. Reform does not mean humiliating the one who saves your mother or child.”