President Dan on early elections: We cannot gamble with our country's fate

President Nicusor Dan said on Wednesday evening that, although early elections 'sound very good in theory', in practice they would mean five months during which no budget revision could be carried out.'Early elections sound very good in theory. In other words, the parties cannot reach an agreement, so we go back to the people and the people decide. But in practice, things are as follows: we do not have a budget revision, and an interim government cannot carry one out. Early elections mean five months in which we cannot have a budget revision. It means we will no longer provide funding to ambulance services or the healthcare system. Secondly, we are a country that has been living on borrowed money for a long time and, when you live on borrowed money, you cannot play around with the financial flows that keep day-to-day activity going. And the message I received from the investors who lend money to Romania - banks, pension funds and so on -and who ensure its day-to-day functioning was ?no early elections'. I am a responsible person; we are not going to gamble with the fate of this country just to see what comes out of an election,' the head of state said at a press conference at the Romanian Embassy in the Czech Republic, at the end of his visit to Prague.He also explained that, as indicated by publicly released opinion polls, the outcome of early elections would be 'more or less what we have now, and once again the same parties would have to negotiate the formation of the same government'.Asked whether the political class was being 'irresponsible and failing to put certain egos aside', the head of state stressed that 'a responsible approach would have been to have a government immediately after the no-confidence motion, or to have reached a good understanding before the no-confidence motion so that we did not get to the point of having one'.'That did not happen, and I said it at the time and, obviously, I stand by what I said: between the national interest and party interest, we have often seen party interest prevail,' Nicusor Dan said.The president acknowledged that the 'emotion' expressed on social media, where people attribute the failure to form a government to him, was understandable, but stressed that 'there is a difference between emotion and desire, and a fundamental principle of democracy, which is a parliamentary majority'.'But there is a difference between emotion and desire, and a fundamental principle of democracy, which is a majority. And this is - if you want to put it very directly - this is the fundamental difference between many of the people who supported me and now say they are disappointed, and my position. Because, unfortunately, 30% is less than 50%. And with 30%, however good your intentions may be, if you are not willing to negotiate and to give up or make concessions on parts of your programme in order to reach 51%, you cannot govern,' President Nicusor Dan explained.   According to him, Romania's financial figures are much better than they were a year ago and six months ago. At a press conference held at the Romanian Embassy in the Czech Republic, the head of state was asked how much the current political situation affects the country's rating being prepared by Standard & Poor's and what type of assessment he expects in the coming days."I do not want to anticipate an assessment by a third party, but for Romania's citizens and financial institutions, particularly those that have lent to Romania, I want to repeat a few things. Romania's financial figures are much better than they were a year ago and six months ago. And that is statistics, it is not a subjective matter," the head of state said.Nicusor Dan underscored that "on important issues, there is consensus among Romania's political class, the pro-Western parties.""You have seen that, on SAFE [Security Action for Europe], we have also passed the percentage of contracts, if we look at the percentage of contracts signed as a criterion, compared with the amounts borrowed by each of the states, Romania is among the top European countries. It was an effort. Of course, ideally, we would have passed the important PNRR [National Recovery and Resilience Plan] laws two years ago, three years ago, but it was an effort, MPs came back from their holidays, joined online from wherever they were and important laws - biodiversity, the ANI [National Integrity Agency], all these - were passed by Parliament and we are at 92% on the PNRR, which is reasonable for an administration such as Romania's. So, good figures and consensus on the important issues and, if all political leaders say 'we will maintain the financial trajectory', it means that this will happen," the president said.The head of state also said that "all political leaders agree that the person at the Finance Ministry, regardless of the Government, will be a professional in this area.""That is the message I have given at several meetings with investors, because it is normal for us to reassure them, as the reality on the ground often differs somewhat from what is presented in a more alarmist manner by certain media outlets or on social media," Nicusor Dan underscored.   În his opinion, both pension indexation and the pay of public-sector employees were 'legitimate concerns for all political parties', but that a balance had to be struck with the overall state budget envelope for next year.'Both pensions and public-sector pay are concerns, and I am telling you this because I have attended several discussions; they are legitimate concerns for all the parties. At the same time, however, there needs to be a balance with the overall budget envelope, and everyone is aware of this. So, once we have the draft budget, we will also see whether it is possible to increase pensions and public-sector salaries,' the head of state said at the end of his official visit to Prague, during a press conference for Romanian journalists.He was asked what would happen with the budget revision in the absence of a fully empowered government and what the solution might be.'Ideally, we should not be in this situation. A solution was found that took us from October 1 to November 1, following discussions with the Government, helped us go on from October 1 to November 1 through the Reserve Fund, with 10%, but this is not normal. We should have a fully empowered government as soon as possible to approve the budget revision and - very importantly, once again, in our relations with financial institutions - to draw up the draft budget, so that we have a budget by the end of the year and finally manage to benefit, in terms of interest rates, from the financial situation, which is much better than last year.'So this is not a reason for panic in the very short term, but it is a matter of weeks before we have to resolve this issue,' the president stressed. Standard & Poor's will publish its country report on 2 October, after Fitch and Moody's kept Romania in the investment-grade category in July and August.