PSD's Claudiu Manda warns ministers some may not see Christmas in office

A warning at the leadership meeting

Claudiu Manda, the PSD secretary general, used the party's Permanent National Bureau (BPN) meeting on Monday, 9 November, to tell ministers that the party expects them to take its decisions seriously. The meeting began at 10:00 at the party headquarters on Șoseaua Kiseleff in Bucharest. According to sources cited in the reporting, some deadlines set for ministers had expired the week before, while others were due on 9 November. Manda also said ministers should not pursue their own policies inside their ministries, and the BPN was to review how the commitments made by PSD ministers would be applied. The PSD holds 11 posts in the government of Luca-Alexandru Niculescu, which has been in office since 20 October.

Manda put the core demand in direct terms:

“We have set clear deadlines for our ministers.”

He then delivered the sharper line, which he framed as a joint message with party chairman Sorin Grindeanu:

“Sorin and I have a message: if things continue in this direction, some may not see Christmas in office.”

What the message signals

Digi24's sources said the statement was likely meant more for an outside audience than for the party itself, because replacing ministers was not on the table, at least within the Social Democratic camp. The warning comes while the party prepares three big pieces of work at once: the 2027 budget, the funding for the increases it has proposed, and two reforms it has tried in other governments, namely administrative reform and the consolidation of state institutions. The party is therefore pressing its ministers to deliver results before those tasks reach a decision point.

Deadlines and the reform agenda

Grindeanu announced in the week before 9 November that the leadership had decided to centralise, within two weeks, all proposals to merge state institutions, agencies and companies. He also said the team working on local public administration reform would present a first working draft within a week. The local reform is built mainly around a package of incentives for voluntary mergers of communes, which would make some communes disappear. According to one source, the deadline for proposals to merge or reorganise agencies and government institutions falls in the week of 16 November.

Budget pressure and pensions

The party needs to draft the 2027 budget and find the money for the increases it proposes, including pension rises and, in the second half of the year, a higher minimum wage. Labour minister Florin Manole has discussed a possible pension increase next year and a financial support payment for pensioners in December 2026. Those discussions are tied to available budget resources and the need to reduce the deficit, which means the timing and size of both measures remain open.

Grindeanu's attack on the Buzău mayor

Grindeanu opened the Monday meeting with a comparison aimed at Constantin Toma, the PSD mayor of Buzău, one of the party's most outspoken internal critics of Grindeanu:

“Olguța attracted European money, while Toma lost tens of millions of euros.”

He praised Lia Olguța Vasilescu, mayor of Craiova, for a project worth more than 500 million euros that now brings mountain spring water to taps in the city. The water comes from Izvarna, in the Tismana area, through a 123-kilometre pipeline and needs no treatment. Grindeanu also said Toma had lost 80 million euros of PNRR funds for renovating apartment blocks, a claim he made in the meeting and which is his own assertion.