The leaders of the governing coalition meet on Wednesday in the first meeting of 2025

The leaders of the governing coalition are meeting on Wednesday, at 5:00 p.m., for the first meeting of 2025, with the agenda set to include discussions on setting the date of the presidential elections, as well as on the alliance’s joint presidential candidate. Crin Antonescu recently announced that he is “unilaterally” suspending his candidacy from these parties, in the absence of official validation.   The leaders of the governing coalition are to set the calendar for the presidential elections, with several dates being considered, either before the Easter holidays or after April.   A discussion is also expected regarding the alliance’s joint candidate for the presidential elections, after Crin Antonescu, initially announced by the leaders of the three parties as the coalition’s candidate, declared that at this point he considers his candidacy on behalf of the Coalition for the 2025 presidential elections suspended.   The liberal argued his decision by saying that, firstly, no election date has yet been set, and secondly, there was no unanimous vote from the coalition members. PSD leader, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, told Digi24, after Crin Antonescu announced that he was suspending his candidacy in the presidential elections, that he would discuss it with him.   In turn, PNL leader, Ilie Bolojan, assured that liberal Crin Antonescu is still, from the National Liberal Party’s point of view, the coalition’s candidate for the 2025 presidential elections. Bolojan said that Antonescu is right when he says that the electoral calendar must be expedited, adding that the legislation must be amended so that an independent candidate can also have representatives in the polling stations, not just in the Central Electoral Bureau.   UDMR leader, Kelemen Hunor, said that liberal Crin Antonescu is right and that the election date must be set as soon as possible.   The coalition leaders must also establish the calendar for adopting the 2025 state budget and whether they will convene Parliament in an extraordinary session to adopt the law. The political agreement, concluded on December 23, 2024, between the PSD, PNL, UDMR and minorities and valid until 2028, provides, in addition to the formation of the governing coalition, that in the 2025 presidential elections the sole candidate of the coalition is Crin Antonescu. Each formation was to validate this decision in the leadership forums, but neither the PSD, nor the PNL, nor the UDMR have approved this decision, to date.