European support and internal dialogue; What Nicuşor Dan did in the first days as president-elect

The activity of president-elect Nicuşor Dan was intense and focused in the first days after the May 18 elections and addressed essential issues for the country's economic and financial future, with an emphasis on reducing the budget deficit, building a stable parliamentary majority and preparing a coherent plan of fiscal and administrative measures.

The day after the second round of the presidential elections, on Monday, Nicuşor Dan had an important telephone conversation, discussing with the president of the UDMR, Kelemen Hunor, whom he thanked "for the support provided by the Hungarian community in Romania in the May 18 presidential elections". During the dialogue, the UDMR leader assured him that "he can count on the support of the Union for the necessary reforms at the national level".

Also on Monday, Dan met with interim president Ilie Bolojan to discuss the files that the future president of the country must take over. Nicuşor Dan specified: "There will be more discussions on the files that we need to send to each other, We discussed a lot about the deficit and how we can get out of this".

Asked if he discussed with Ilie Bolojan also about the negotiations regarding the future government, Nicuşor Dan said: "I asked him, obviously, he is the interim president of the PNL, I asked him for his opinion on how the government should be". Regarding the PSD, the president-elect was reserved: "Let's wait for the PSD meeting (ed. - the one on Tuesday in which Marcel Ciolacu was to resign), to see what the direction is". At the same time, he emphasized: "There are some technical discussions that I need to have, on specific defense issues and also on specific financial issues, on the deficit".

On Tuesday, the president-elect spent four hours at the Ministry of Finance, where he discussed with Minister Tanczos Barna and other specialists. After the meeting, Nicuşor Dan said that the budget deficit can be kept within the limits agreed with the European Commission without tax increases, but "through better collection of state budget revenues and reducing or streamlining budget expenditures." In a Facebook post, Nicuşor Dan reaffirmed this commitment: "The main priority during this period is correcting the budget deficit, and the dialogue with political parties will focus exclusively on identifying solutions in this regard. Developing a concrete plan of measures to reduce public spending is essential and can no longer be postponed. All information circulating in the public space regarding the structure of the future Government or possible nominations for ministerial positions is, at this moment, mere speculation."

The day before the CCR meeting to validate his election as president of the country, on Wednesday, Nicuşor Dan met in Bucharest with Roberta Metsola, the president of the European Parliament, with whom he had an informal discussion. Practically, Roberta Metsola is the first high-ranking foreign official that the newly elected president has met. Following the meeting, Nicuşor Dan wrote on his Facebook page: "I had a first informal discussion with the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola. Romania needs all the support in the coming period". He emphasized the role that European partners play in the country's economic stability. In turn, the president of the European Parliament posted a photo of Nicuşor Dan on the X network and wrote: "Together in Bucharest. Together for Europe. Together for Romania".

Yesterday, after the ceremony at the CCR, Nicuşor Dan announced a new round of talks with the Minister of Finance, Tanczos Barna, and the Minister of European Funds, Marcel Boloş. The talks aim, according to Nicuşor Dan, to "talk about their ideas regarding the obligation to reduce the deficit by the end of 2025 and, on the other hand, to see what the status of the talks with the European Commission is." The president elected and validated by the CCR recalled that "Romania has assumed some deficit targets before the European Commission and I want to know exactly what the status of the talks is."

Regarding the future budget, Nicuşor Dan emphasized: "The discussions for the 2025 and 2026 budget start from the premise of not increasing taxes. I think that a realistic-optimistic target for the 2025 deficit is 7.5% of GDP and for this, compared to the predictions we have at the moment, we should find where to cut expenses or transfer some amounts within the budget of approximately 30 billion euros." Also yesterday, Nicuşor Dan confirmed that "Ilie Bolojan remains the first option for the position of prime minister in the future Government." Regarding the PSD, the future president reported: "I met for a few minutes with Mr. Grindeanu (ed. - the interim president of the PSD), I did not have a discussion with him. I am glad that the party is open, you know very well that it has not made the official decision regarding participation in the government, but I am glad that it does not exclude to enter in government, and will be in power and so there will be some discussions. These are technical discussions that we will have. A PSD entry into government would give more credibility to a government with a parliamentary majority, it has more credibility and this will be seen including in the level of interest rates on the loans that we will have to take".

In addition to official activities, in the first three days of the week, Nicuşor Dan was invited to several television stations - B1 TV, Antena 1, Pro TV, TVR, where he explained in detail the priorities of his mandate. He insisted that there are real premises for the future government to avoid increasing taxes and duties, focusing instead on "reducing the budget deficit by streamlining public spending and through better collection of VAT and other revenues by ANAF".