State spends more on gendarmes and policemen than on physicians and teachers

The state annually spends more than 1.4bn euros to pay policemen and gendarmes’ salaries, almost two and a half times more than it spends to pay teachers and physicians, according to according to Finance Ministry website information. Whereas for the salaries of the 275,000 teachers the state spends 512m euros a year and for the 15,000 resident doctors plus emergency doctors the Health Ministry’s salary expenses last year reached 61m euros, for the payment of policemen, gendarmes, the state spent over 1.4bn euros. Why? There are two reasons behind this situation, believes Vladimir Pasti, a sociologist and political analyst. “Current state employees are a product and an outgrowth of the communist system, the same salary system of the respective period was maintained and oscillations registered in the meanwhile were insignificant. On the other hand, for this category of paramilitary forces, salaries need to be high because nobody would otherwise want to work in the system,” Pasti says.