George Simion laments the problem of living in big European cities: “My affordable housing plan was mocked”

The president of the AUR, George Simion, declared on Saturday that the housing problem in the big European cities “got out of control”, the cost of living became unbearable, that's why, during last year's election campaign, he came up with a proposal for affordable housing, a proposal that was “ridiculed” because of the political struggle.

According to a press release, AUR representatives, members of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, presented on Saturday, during a conference on the European strategy for solving the housing crisis, organized by AUR MEP Georgiana Teodorescu, a concrete plan to break the deadlock, proposing affordable housing, reducing bureaucracy, support for young people and maintaining national control over housing policies.

“In this context, AUR president and ECR vice-president George Simion showed that the housing problem has gotten out of control in the big European cities, where the cost of living has increased, and young families no longer have access to housing”, it is mentioned in the AUR press release, quoted by Agerpres.

Simion said that in the big metropolises “the cost of living has become unbearable, life itself is becoming more and more complicated for European citizens”.

“Unfortunately, at the moment, there are no feasible solutions in the big cities to make our lives easier. That's why, during the election campaign last year, we came up with a proposal for affordable housing, housing of 50 to 60 square meters. This plan was ridiculed, this plan was abandoned, because of the political struggle. A few months later, we see that this issue is in the spotlight The European Commission, which modified one of its portfolios precisely to rectify the problem”, George Simion also affirmed.

The President of AUR insisted that without a national plan and European coordination, the situation cannot be resolved by the local authorities.

“Whatever name the mayor of Bucharest bears (…) he cannot solve this problem by himself, without a national plan. He cannot solve the problem of pollution, he cannot solve the problem of systematizing traffic, he cannot make our lives easier if there is no national plan and a European plan”, he said.

MEP AUR: “The plan proposed by George Simion should become a national strategy”

According to the mentioned communique, the AUR MEP, Georgiana Teodorescu, presented the directions supported in the European Parliament for addressing the housing crisis, emphasizing on treating it as a priority and on maintaining the decision at the national level.

“The first issue, I said that housing must be treated as a major priority and not just as a social problem. (…) We requested and it was included in the final report the simplification of the bureaucracy, the acceleration of construction permits. (…) Another thing we introduced was the need to use abandoned or unused public buildings more efficiently, as well as public lands”, stressed Georgiana Teodorescu, quoted in the AUR press release.

AUR MEP Adrian Axinia emphasized that solving the housing crisis depends on taking concrete measures and changing the current direction, showing that the problem is not related to the lack of resources, but to the lack of political will.

“This European model is unsustainable. (…) I tell you, from my position as a construction engineer and real estate developer, that we can build ready-made apartments for 800 euros per square meter and brick houses for 1,000 euros per square meter. The problem is not the concrete, but the political will. (…) The plan proposed by Mr. George Simion should become a national strategy, because the advantages are multiple. (…) Secondly, we help the construction sector and the economy, (…) we can encourage the industry producing construction materials”, said Axinia.

Simion and his “houses for 35,000 euros” program

In May 2025, in the midst of the campaign for the presidential elections, the candidate who reached the second round George Simion stated, in an interview with Digi24, that his promise from the 2024 campaign to offer houses at prices of only 35,000 euros, if he becomes president of Romania, was in fact a “promotion to break the information blockade”.

The theme, however, was a central one in his campaign for the canceled presidential elections of 2024 and it took place all over the country, with AUR inviting to sign a contract to benefit from this program. “This contract is concluded subject to the suspensive condition of the election of Mr. George-Nicolae Simion as President of Romania following the 2024 elections,” the document read.

Hundreds of people were photographed in July 2024 queuing outside an AUR headquarters in Bucharest to sign “Simion's Plan”, which promises to deliver one million apartments, many of them for €35,000 with a €1,000 down payment and zero interest.

In the Digi24 interview, George Simion explained that it was never a campaign to actually offer houses to people at this amount, but “our form of marketing, of promotion, of publicizing the action”.

The AUR leader admitted that this campaign played a role in his success in the presidential elections. “If we didn't have these forms of promotion in these years to break the information blockade, we wouldn't be where we are today, at 42% votes,” said George Simion.

However, Simion insisted that the campaign is doable, even at lower prices. “But who says we don't do them? In the ANL program, houses are built for 28,000 euros. The problem is another. How are they given? That they are not given to families who… In the program of the National Housing Agency, as long as the state owns some land in cities and makes that land available for free, access to infrastructure, utilities…”, George Simion also stated.