Romanian prime ministerial adviser Eugen Teodorovici was reportedly dismissed from the post on July 14, the day after he spoke about the possibility of taxing the local Orthodox Church. Teodorovici also criticised the government’s plans to allocate €12mn to build a football arena in Teleorman county, where the leader of the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD), Liviu Dragnea, served as head of the county council for years.

Teodorovici, a former finance minister in a previous PSD government, had only served as an adviser to Prime Minister Mihai Tudose for five days. However, his removal is not surprising as the idea of taxing the revenues of the influential Orthodox Church had neither been included in the party’s governing programme nor been announced by the party leader.

“The Church has to understand and choose. We live in the 21^st century, we need money,” the former finance minister said during a TV show at Digi TV.

“If we calculate in the last 10 or 27 years how much the Church was financed by the state, we will see there are important amounts. We need to find a balance. I repeat I have no doubt that the proposal I want to make will be accepted by the Romanian Orthodox Church."

The idea was criticised by Dragnea who said that the state should help “some institutions exist”. He added that the idea had not been discussed withinin the ruling coalition.

In response, the Romanian Orthodox Church said in a statement quoted by digi24.ro that it pays taxes on the plots of land and buildings it uses, on salaries and all economic activities it carries out.

“From the fiscal point of view, religious cults in Romania are treated as public utility organisations, being assimilated in terms of tax regime to NGOs, foundations, associations or other non-profit organisation,” the church said.

Governmental sources quoted by Hotnews.ro claimed that Teodorovici was not dismissed because of his statements about the taxation of the church, but because he made statements about the governmental policies without informing the prime minister beforehand.