What did the Minister of Finance respond when asked about the subsidies for parties, who escaped untouched to budget rectification
Finance Minister Alexandru Nazare and the spokesman of the Government Ioana Ene Dogioiu Photo: Hotnews – Rebecca Popescu
The Minister of Finance Alexandru Nazare said that the changes in the level of the subsidies that the parties benefit will be reduced only after a decision of the parties that are part of the ruling coalition. Nazare was asked by Hotnews why the rectification did not reduce the subsidies in the conditions in which Prime Minister Bolojan said, last week, that a 10% discount “would not be a catastrophe” for parties.
“In the rectification we operated two things: I stopped the 10% detention that the Ministry of Finance on the AEP budget had, which represents about 51 million lei. That money is no longer available to the AEP and I granted the 169 million lei, which if we had not granted it would have become arrays.
“I couldn't get over the coalition”
At the observation that the 169 million is money for the reimbursement of the expenses in the election campaign, so separated from the money that the parties receive as a subsidy, Alexandru Nazare specified that the modification of the level of subsidies will be made if there is a political decision.
“When a decision will be made in the coalition related to the subsidy area, we will operate it immediately in a normative act. At the moment we do not have this decision, it is just rectification (…) I personally would like to make savings everywhere. As for the AEP, the decision is of the coalition, I could not go over the coalition,” he said.
The total amount collected by parties from the beginning of the year to August including is over 150 million lei (30 million euros). By the end of the year, if nothing changes, the parties will receive almost double: 284 million lei (56.8 million euros).
What happened with 30 million euros and how the Pota / Pot Political Money Doubles
Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan promised in July that the subsidy for parties will be reduced to the budget rectification. So far no rectification has been operated on, the estimation being that it will take place in mid -September, if the government falls.
Hotnews asked the leaders of PSD, PNL and USR on August 21, but also the Minister of Finance, the reduction of the subsidy for parties after the budget rectification. No one responded to Hotnews request until the material is published.
Money secretly go to the press and propaganda
The data consulted by Hotnews show that the parties have continued to direct the largest amounts to the press and propaganda. PSD and PNL have been refusing to answer questions about the final destination of money for years, with what sites or televisions have collaborated for political advertising, although they use public money in their activity.
The situation of the amounts spent from the subsidy for press and propaganda between January and July 2025 shows the following data, according to the data consulted by Hotnews based on the reports made by the AEP parties:
- PSD: 60.1 million lei
- Gold: 16 million lei
- PNL: 8 million lei
- USR: 4.7 million lei
- Can: 38,500 lei
- Sos: 12,500 lei
The parties in the ruling coalition decided in July to reduce the subsidy for parties by 40%, but compared to 2024. Thus, it could reach 230 million lei. The value is comparable to the year 2023, before the election year, when it was 227 million lei.
In 2016, the first year when the new law on the financing of election parties and campaigns was applied, the parties received from the state, as a subsidy, 14.5 million lei.
