The Deputy Prime Minister of UDMR calls for “wisdom” and “political maturity” in the coalition: “We need the budget as soon as possible”
Tanczos Barna, Minister of Finance, holds a press conference at the end of the government meeting in which the state budget for 2025 was established, at the Victoria Palace in Bucharest, February 1, 2025. Inquam Photos / George Călin
Deputy Prime Minister Tanczos Barna urged the parties in the governing coalition “to come to an understanding as soon as possible” so that the state budget for 2026 could be approved.
Asked on Europa FM on Thursday about the criticism that the PSD leader brought to the liberal prime minister, the UDMR deputy prime minister said that “nobody has an alternative” to the current governing coalition at the moment.
“The coalition must move forward and we must make the decisions for the country and for the economy. We need the budget as soon as possible, in a few days, two weeks (…). In the best case, the budget will be approved at the end of February. We cannot afford to send other messages neither to investors, nor to the European Commission, nor to the citizens of this country, because the economy needs stability”, added Tanczos Barna, urging his government colleagues to “wisdom” and “political maturity”.
Tanczos Barna was asked if he expects the PNL to drop Ilie Bolojan and come up with another prime minister.
“These are the decisions of the party. From my point of view, this is not the time to enter into such political disputes and political uncertainty. That would mean returning to the Parliament, to have another period in which we renegotiate the coalition, we need a vote in the Parliament again. These are not the expectations, nor the expectations of the citizens, nor the expectations of businessmen in the country, nor the expectations of investors”, replied Tanczos Barna.
“It's much less flexible than others”
Tanczos Barna said that Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan “is the only one who last year, in July, assumed this mandate.”
“No one, apart from him, wanted to sacrifice himself. There was no question of someone from the UDMR being prime minister, but no one from the other parties wanted to be prime minister at a time when it was very clear that unpopular decisions would be made. He assumed this. This must continue to be respected, even if, indeed, the decisions taken generate a lot of dissatisfaction and a lot of criticism towards him,” continued the deputy prime minister UDMR.
Asked if he was working hard with Bolojan, he added: “He's not an easy man to convince. I can say he's a lot less flexible than others, but that's his style, that was known.”
