The Prime Minister supports the purchase of a presidential aircraft. “All the dignitaries can use it/ You don't need to take very big planes”
Ilie Bolojan and Nicușor Dan. Photo: Radu Tuță / Agerpres
Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan declared, on Tuesday, on TVR 1, that almost all European countries have official planes, used to represent the state, and Romania may also have such a plane.
Bolojan was asked if Romania can afford an official plane for state dignitaries, if it needs such a plane, considering the situation last week when President Nicusor Dan was stuck in Paris for a whole day because the Spartan plane could not take off due to the weather.
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“Think that almost all European countries have planes that are used to represent the state. Romania can also have such a plane. It can be used by all dignitaries, nothing happens, it can be administered by the Ministry of Defense, the Army, because anyway they have to do their pilot hours, so it can have several destinations. Here, it is always a decision related to a cost-benefit analysis. Think that if the planes that we rented them over the years for races like this, if the money had been used to take such a plane in a lease, we probably wouldn't have come out very differently. So here, just like in a business analysis, analysis must be made and decisions made, but leaving an area of populism,” said the prime minister, quoted by Agerpres.
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He mentioned that such an analysis can be done at this moment, although this is not the most important problem of the country.
“Obviously, an analysis can be made. The documentation has been prepared, I understand, for about 10 years. When such decisions were made to take, I don't know, one or two planes, one should not take some of these very large planes, but one should take some decent planes, in which to solve both a decent cost, but also an aspect of representing Romania, because, indeed, this also matters in certain situations. But this is not the most important problem of our country. We have problems that concern our citizens. So, let's get through these months, let's take care of the serious things, and let's do what's right for our country,” he concluded.
