The President of Romania, Nicusor Dan, meets on Tuesday with the leaders of the parties in the governing coalition, against the backdrop of tensions regarding the support of the budget project and public disputes between the parties. The meeting, scheduled for 15:00 in Cotroceni, takes place after the coalition agreed on the reform of the administration and the changes regarding local fees and taxes.
Although the coalition leaders reached an agreement on these issues on Monday, the PSD threatens that it will not vote on the state budget if the social package proposed by the Social Democrats is not included, and the level of local investments will not be maintained at the same level as last year. Sorin Grindeanu, PSD leader, declared that the party will not support the budget without these provisions. The Minister of Labor, Florin Manole, has announced that he will resign if the discussions with the unions on the subject of the Salary Law do not begin by April. In addition, former PSD leader Marcel Ciolacu mentioned the option of early elections last week.
The meeting in Cotroceni takes place a few days before the departure of President Nicusor Dan to Washington, where he will participate in the inaugural meeting of the Peace Council, initiated by President Donald Trump, Romania being present as an observer. Also, the appointment of secret service chiefs is another possible topic of discussion.
Despite the criticism of the current coalition, Nicuşor Dan emphasized last week that this “works better than perception”.
The president noted that the coalition parties managed to reach agreements on several normative acts and measures, even if there are attacks and public tensions between the formations.
“Of course, in life I would like many things to be different than they are, but, broadly speaking, beyond the continuous attacks between the parties and the perception that this coalition is in great suffering, I think that, in reality, the way it works and they end up having the same opinion on the normative acts that they assume, this coalition works better than the perception”declared Nicusor Dan.
