Prime Minister Luca Niculescu said that, in the next two to three weeks, the Minister of Finance will present the fiscal and budgetary situation of the country. He avoided saying whether the newly installed government had found a budget “hole”, but said no more austerity measures could be taken “without stirring up even greater tensions”.
Luca Niculescu avoided saying whether or not he felt a “heavy inheritance” when taking over the head of the government.
“I can’t say that it is the easiest job to be the Prime Minister of Romania, on the contrary, I think it is one of the most complex and complicated, especially in such a context. We have to govern a country, we knew what the challenges are, we still have to collect some data to see exactly what the country’s fiscal and budgetary situation looks like. There will be a communication from the Minister of Finance relatively soon and then we will know exactly how we are doing. Yes, Romania is in a period of fiscal consolidation, this means that we have to go from a deficit that was very large to a deficit that falls within the path agreed with the European Commission.
A smaller deficit certainly implies a transition process, at the same time, we are coming after a period in which people suffered, in which people are still suffering, in which purchasing power was eroded, in which you can no longer come up with austerity measures without provoking even greater tensions, and then we are very careful in balancing that fiscal-budgetary consolidation that Romania needs, because, if we leave this route, the adjustment will be even tougher. In short, if Romania enters junk, it will not be good at all”, said Niculescu, on Tuesday evening, on TVR, according to News.ro.
“All this data regarding the fiscal-budgetary situation is about to be collected by the Minister of Finance. We will know in two or three weeks exactly what the situation is. That report will be ready and it is good for all of us to know exactly how we stand when we take over the government. It is a natural desire! How will it be? Will it be in the Parliament, will it be at the Government, will it be at the Ministry of Finance? We will see,” said Luca Niculescu.
He pointed out that it is a “natural desire” on the part of those who govern to know “how governance is”.
“We know how complicated the situation is in general, but we also have reasons for optimism and one of the missions of this government is to restore hope, to restore confidence. I think that what drives everyone is the debt to the country. We are still at the beginning, we will see along the way and I am waiting for the verdict, or the analysis, to come from you. I am only thinking about what we have to do”, declared Niculescu.
Regarding the fact that he worked as a journalist for a long time, Luca Niculescu stated: “I think it was easier for me to ask questions than to give answers.”
He told that, as a journalist, he interviewed the current Minister of Education, Sorin Costreie, when he was in civil society.
Niculescu confessed that he felt that the two weeks passed “like two months”, showing that the Government is working “intensely”.
