President Nicusor Dan admitted on Monday evening that he would have acted differently regarding some of the measures adopted by the Government, but he underscored that the members of the governing coalition managed to reach consensus.
‘We have a coalition that has passed a series of measures. Of course, there are people who criticise each other, but overall, if we look at this coalition’s results so far, we can see that it has managed to come together on a number of measures which, obviously, are not perfect. Clearly, many of them, in my view, could have been handled differently. But they were subordinated to the objective of avoiding a budget deficit deviation that could have led us into a dangerous spiral,’ said Nicusor Dan on Antena 3 private television broadcaster.
He mentioned that he would have acted ‘differently’ in some cases, but he declined to give details so as not to appear to be entering into a dispute with the Government.
‘At this point, there are already plenty of disputes, and I don’t want to add another one. I want to say two things. First – some measures needed to be taken in a short time. So, you act as best you can. Second – on the whole, they were necessary, because otherwise things would have been worse – for example, inflation would have been even higher than it is now. Third – we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel, which is the end of 2026. In 2026, we will finally stabilise the deficit. We will borrow money at lower interest rates. In 2026, we will join the OECD, and that will make Romania more attractive to companies looking to invest. In 2027, we’ll begin extracting gas from the Black Sea, and that will make us highly relevant in terms of energy and industries dependent on it. In 2028, we’ll finally complete the motorway connecting the Port of Constanta to Western Europe,’ he said.
The President acknowledged that inflation will affect people’s purchasing power, but argued that ignoring the deficit would have resulted in even higher inflation.
‘The fact that we have an inflation rate heading towards 10% means that people will be able to buy 10% less. And that is significant. But it must be said that there was hardly any alternative. Ignoring the deficit would have made financial markets unwilling to lend to Romania, and inflation would have been even worse,’ explained Nicusor Dan.
When asked whether he was bothered by the fact that Ilie Bolojan did not respect his stance on VAT and magistrates’ pensions, Nicusor Dan said that in such a context ‘there’s no room for personal grudges.’
‘When you’re in this position, there’s no room for personal grudges. And I believe we need to maintain a balance and consider the medium- and long-term impact of every decision we make. (…) Yes, VAT was part of the agreement we had when the Government was formed. Afterwards, we had a discussion and, well, based on certain calculations… I agreed with some, disagreed with others, but the Government said, This is the only way we can do it,’ saying to have access to different data than we had when we initially made the agreement. In the end, people in politics will never be entirely aligned. What matters is that the decisions you make are thought through in terms of short-, medium-, and long-term consequences,’ he said.
Asked whether Ilie Bolojan ‘annoys’ him, the President replied that he is not allowed to get annoyed and that he does not regret appointing Bolojan as Prime Minister.
‘I’m not allowed to get annoyed. (…) No, I don’t regret it. I did what I said I would during the campaign. In the campaign, if you remember, I said I thought he was a good choice – and I acted accordingly. To tell you something that is already somewhat known publicly, there was an expectation from all the parties in the coalition for this appointment,’ he said. AGERPRES
