The coalition scandal, on Nicușor Dan's table. The President, separate meetings with the leaders of the governing parties
Consultations of President Nicușor Dan with the delegation of the Save Romania Union (USR) with a view to appointing a candidate for the position of prime minister. Photo: Grigore Popescu / Agerpres
President Nicușor Dan had meetings in the last few days with two of the leaders of the coalition – Ilie Bolojan and Dominic Fritz. The meetings take place in the context of the conflict in the coalition generated by the PSD attacks on the Bolojan Government, but also in the context in which the president must appoint the heads of the intelligence services for which he needs the approval of the leaders of the ruling parties.
Ilie Bolojan and President Nicușor Dan met on Monday morning at the Cotroceni Palace to discuss the budget for 2026 and the Prime Minister's visit to Germany. “Today, at the Cotroceni Palace, there was a meeting between the President of Romania, Nicușor Dan, and the Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan. The discussions focused on the preparation of the Prime Minister's official visit to Germany, as well as on Romania's budget for 2026,” the Presidential Administration reported.
The discussions between the two lasted about two hours and took place a few hours before the coalition meeting in which it was decided to postpone the engagement of the Government for the reform of the public administration.
On Wednesday, there was a discussion between the president and Dominic Fritz, the leader of the USR. According to HotNews information, such meetings between the two take place weekly, and they discuss “current issues in a confidential setting”. The same thing happened on Wednesday.
The discussion between Nicușor Dan and Fritz takes place in the context in which, in recent weeks, several party leaders launched harsh attacks on Prime Minister Bolojan, whom they accused of “accounting scammers”.
Then, in an interview for RFI Romania, the prime minister was asked directly about the option of a minority Government.
“During a period of political crisis we have reached minority governments. I do not rule out that such things can happen, but I think that for our country it is desirable to have political stability, to have predictable policies and responsible behavior of political parties”, was Bolojan's answer.
In response, Claudiu Manda, Sorin Grindeanu's right-hand man, threatened the prime minister with a motion of censure. In parallel, PSD members are being consulted about the party's exit from the Government and, according to some sources, this internal consultation will be completed after the 2026 budget is adopted.
The discussion on the heads of services remained open
This week's discussions at the Cotroceni Palace take place in the context in which the head of state needs the agreement of the governing parties, which also have a majority in Parliament, so that the appointments for the heads of SRI and SIE are approved by the legislature.
In addition, he has stated several times that he will not make these appointments before they are approved by the coalition leaders.
“The President proposes and the Parliament must vote, precisely from the perspective of this stability (of the coalition – ed.) I don't think it will happen that we don't discuss first. On the contrary, we will discuss so that the appointments are validated by the Parliament”, explained Nicușor Dan last week.
Asked in late November by reporters when he would make the intelligence chief appointments, the president replied curtly: “Probably early next year.”
“The president is determined to appoint a man in whom he has full confidence to DNA”, a source from the Cotroceni Palace explained to HotNews. The statement was confirmed by the second source, who added that Nicușor Dan has two stakes in this election: the head of SRI and that of DNA.
On January 13, in an interview for G4Media, Kelemen Hunor was asked if there had been discussions in the coalition or with President Nicușor Dan about the future directors of the intelligence services, the UDMR leader answered negatively:
“No. I did not discuss with President Nicușor Dan, nor with colleagues from the coalition.” He also stated then that Nicușor Dan “must take the next step (ed. – appointing new directors) as soon as possible”.
