Talks on the budget deficit
On the sidelines of negotiations over the new cabinet structure, officials are also looking at measures to cut public spending
Roxana Vasile, 29.05.2025, 14:00
Shortly after taking office as president of Romania, Nicușor Dan invited all parliamentary parties to informal talks. Talks are aimed at negotiating the structure of the future cabinet, but also at identifying swift and responsible solutions to the country’s large budget deficit. On Wednesday, at the end of over 10 hours of talks, all sides agreed that negotiations will continue with the pro-European parties also developing plans designed to curb public spending, to be assumed and implemented by the future government. For this goal, PSD, PNL and UDMR – the parties in the current ruling coalition, adding to which are USR and the group of national minorities other than Hungarian – have decided to form a technical working group, whose meetings will also be attended by representatives of the Presidential Administration. Romania’s economic and financial situation is complicated and tax increases may be unavoidable – said the interim leader of PNL, Ilie Bolojan, whom Nicușor Dan nominated in the election campaign as favorite to take over as prime minister.
“In general, we need a reduction in the operating expenses of the state, an analysis of each institution, where staff can be reduced, I think it is necessary to reduce the staff, eliminate the extras, any expenses that cannot be justified, so that we offer equally good services, but with a much smaller volume of expenses from the state”.
The interim leader of USR, Dominic Fritz, also believes that certain bonuses need to be cut before deciding to increase the VAT.
“Before we increase the VAT by one point and earn 7 billion lei from this, let’s cut the radiation exposure bonus, which is 6 billion lei. And there are a few more examples of this kind. The country’s budget is the result of the political will of those who govern. And now, I think it is time to display political will, not to spend more money than we have”.
As for the president of UDMR, Kelemen Hunor pleaded for a very careful analysis of future economic recovery measures:
“The first challenge is to bring in additional revenues this year, almost 30 billion, if we want to reach a 7% deficit target. But this cannot be achieved either by increasing taxes or fees, or by cutting expenses. Just going in one direction or another would leave the budget unbalanced and generate tensions in society”.
From the nationalist parliamentary opposition, only the Young People’s Party (POT) participated in Wednesday’s talks with the president, advocating cutting taxes, but also a better tax collection. AUR and S.O.S. Romania refused to respond to the president’s invitation. (VP)
