The government led by Ilie Bolojan significantly reduced the amounts intended for financing political parties, through the budget rectification of October 1, 2025. The annual subsidy was reduced from 284 million lei to 232 million lei.
The actual cut is closer to 20%, not 10% as originally discussed. PHOTO: Mediafax
Although Prime Minister Bolojan had promised a 10% reduction in the summer, the actual cut is almost 20%, more precisely 17.6% of the budget originally planned for 2025.
The information was not explicitly communicated by the Government or the Coalition leaders, being discovered later in the budget correction documents. Moreover, two days after the adoption of the rectification, the prime minister publicly declared that “will be discussed in the future” about a reduction in the subsidy, leaving the impression that the measure had not yet been applied. The Permanent Electoral Authority has officially confirmed the reduction of the parties’ budget.
According to some political sources cited by HotNews, including members of the PNL, PSD and USR leadership, they did not know that the parties’ budget had already been reduced: “Some of the party leaders did not know,” a source said.
How the reduction occurred
The Minister of Finance, Alexandru Nazare, explained in the press conference on October 1 that the ministry “operated the withholding of 10% on the AEP budget, i.e. approximately 51 million lei”. However, Nazare avoided making it clear that it was about cutting the subsidy for political parties, saying only that “at the moment there is no political decision” regarding this area.
In reality, the amount withheld from the AEP budget directly affected the funds intended for the parties, since the law does not allow the reduction of personnel expenses, but only of those for subsidies.
Thus, the AEP budget was reduced by more than 50 million lei, exactly the amount corresponding to the cut subsidy.
How much money will the parties receive in 2025
After the budget rectification, AEP sent to HotNews the new amounts to be distributed to the political formations:
PSD: 77,101,731 lei
GOLD: 45,591,468 lei
GNP: 41,976,836 lei
USR: 29,794,829 lei
SOS Romania: 19,819,130 lei
POT: 15,969,345 lei
PMP: 1,090,837 lei
Force of Law: 1,035,821 lei
The new values are close to those of 2023, a year without elections, but lower than those of 2024, when parties benefited from record funding, amid four electoral ballots.
Reimbursement for the presidential campaign
The budget correction of October 1 also included the sum of 169 million lei for the reimbursement of expenses from the presidential campaign in May 2025.
Of this amount, almost 100 million will be directed to independent candidates, such as Nicușor Dan and Victor Ponta, to cover the loans contracted during the campaign.
The candidates supported by the parties – including Crin Antonescu and George Simion – will receive the funds through the political formations, but the money will be used to repay the loans made during the campaign, not for the current activity of the parties.
