As Radu Burnete sees the reforms. Message on the first official day at Cotroceni: If we want a state to provide quality public services, everyone has to pay
Radu Burnete participates in the consultations of President Nicusor Dan with the political parties in order to designate a candidate for the position of prime minister, at the Cotroceni Palace, on June 19, 2025. Photo: Agerpres
“We live in difficult times that we will have to navigate together as a nation and community even if we separate our big differences,” said presidential counselor Radu Burnete, on his first official day at the Cotroceni Palace. According to him, an administrative and territorial reform is needed with one of the political parties, in the context in which Romania “crosses an existential crisis”. “If we want to charge at a moderate level and a state that will provide us with quality public services, everyone has to pay, and the state has to deliver,” the presidential counselor added.
“We live in difficult times that we will have to navigate together as a nation and community even if we separate great differences from opinion. We live in difficult times that we will have to sail together as a nation and community even if we separate us big differences,” wrote Radu Burnete, in a message published on his Facebook page.
“The public is of course interested in my ideas and the way I think. I have no way to play them in a post. They will become obvious in time for those who know me less. I point out a few things at the beginning of the mandate,” he wanted to specify.
“Romania crosses an existential crisis. Our social, economic and political model after the fall of communism has exhausted its resources for internal and external reasons. I do not go into details now. There are debates that we have for years. No matter how hard we should tighten and redesign some things. Citizens regarding the taxation.
“We need more private initiative and increase the rate of participation in the workforce. We could not miss the revolutions brought by artificial intelligence, whatever they mean and that means we have to invest in education and research. We have too high regional disappearances, we have to reduce them. We have to play the role in the EU. Competitive.
What Radu Burnete says:
- “The state is an extraordinary tool as long as it is restricted by a constitutional, democratic and liberal framework. We cannot have rights and freedoms and we cannot develop as complete beings outside it. At the same time, the state can be the greatest danger to our freedom, history abounds with examples and not just history because we see many states and today, too many, which do not put on the lives of their citizens. The state must have a limited fingerprint. Inside the security and rights that a liberal and democratic state guarantees, it must be left as much as possible to the initiative and private life because there is fully manifested human creativity. How limited this fingerprint is to be? The answer differs from the era, culture and society to another. Romania does not have to copy blindly, but must be inspired and understand. The answer is good to be in accordance with who we are.
- I don't like extremes. The world is complicated and has many shades. I do not believe in simple solutions for complicated problems. Almost every simplistic solution trumpeted in serious and delivered tones will prove wrong. The problems of life and therefore of the governance are too complex to be solved in a few paragraphs. This does not mean that we do not have to write and debate, but that we must have a healthy dose of skepticism, of curiosity. Let's be aware that we don't know them all.
- I do not like generalizations without a rigorous analysis. All budgets are bad and rotten. There is no waste in the private environment. All politicians are corrupted and all businessmen are hindrance. The unions are bad. The patronies are good. The Romanian research produces nothing. The particle is just as important as the general. You have to understand when it is the meaning of one and when the other. You need to understand what problem you want to solve and why, what general principles govern the space in which you identified the problem, but also what features.
- About the first day. I will try to do everything about me for things to go in a better direction. I will not be upset when I am criticized. In a democracy the dignitaries assume that the critical and unforgivable eyes of the public are on them.“
Radu Burnete was appointed by President Nicușor Dan as presidential counselor on economic and social issues, starting July 1.
