"Following the trade unions' protest of May 19, the representatives of the International Monetary Fund (including its managing director) insisted upon dissociating themselves from the measures passed by the Romanian Government (in fact by President Basescu) that mainly impact employees and retirees. Some representatives of the ruling party had a shameful reaction when they insulted the IMF managing director, whom they suspect of <<electoral intentions>> in relation to the French public," Iliescu writes on his blog, quoted by Mediafax.

According to the former president, Dominique Strauss-Kahn has a sound judgment when he says that "any responsible government, when forced to take austerity measures, must think about protecting its own citizens and resort to tipping the scales of these measures towards the rich, rather than the poorest members of the society."

While he was the head of state, Ion Iliescu favored the progressive taxation and opposed the flat tax. In February 2003, he mentioned taxes of up to 80 pc for monthly salaries above 10,000 USD.

Bucharest Herald