In April 2017, Romania’s financial regulator slaps heavy sanctions on NN for spreading rumors about pension fund nationalization. So, the simple fact of spreading such information led to a severe sanction.
The correctness of this decision was debated and many believe that this decision led to Romania’s financial regulator director being replaced by the Parliament.
This is a great indicator that many Romanians see private pension fund nationalization as an abomination and politicians quickly denied such discussions (to avoid popularity loss).
However, Hungary actually did this several years ago.
On December 13, 2010, National Assembly representatives from the Fidesz–Christian Democratic People’s Party governing alliance passed the Pension Reform and Debt Reduction Fund Law that permanently transferred mandatory private pension-fund contributions to the state unless employees indicated by January 31, 2011 that they wished to continue making payments to the funds.
This article illustrated some reactions to these measures:
Economists and investors were alarmed at the Hungarian move, but the government softened the impact. It said savers could choose to stay in the private funds, although the mandatory contributions would not go to them.
The protesters say they do not trust the government to pay out the full amount when they retire and fear the money will just disappear into the budget.
Question: Why would a Government make such an unpopular decision (to nationalize private pensions funds)?