“We are like Hungary a month ago”: Surprising comparison, made by a vice-president of the European Parliament
Nicu Ștefănuță, vice-president of the European Parliament, said that the political situation in Bucharest “looks pretty bad” in Brussels and warned that Romania risks losing “two-thirds of the PNRR” if it does not complete the assumed reforms by the deadline.
In an intervention on Wednesday at Digi24, the official stated that, in Brussels, it can be seen that in Bucharest “there is not much desire to form a government”, after the Bolojan Government was dismissed by the PSD-AUR motion of censure.
“We hear more from the parties with whom they do not want to make governing alliances than with whom they do. It is becoming increasingly difficult for the citizen to understand, because the citizens are waiting for solutions to the economic, social and energy crisis, so it will be complicated if the parties do not, however, show a willingness to work with each other in an intelligent way”, said Nicu Ștefănuță.
What Romania risks if the political crisis is prolonged
Asked what the risks are, Nicu Ștefănuță pointed to the PNRR, citing “all the payment requests that are still pending for reforms that will not be possible because an interim government can neither issue an emergency ordinance nor will it have serious reforms in the plan”.
“An interim government only does emergency things. It hurts my soul, because we risk losing even two thirds of the PNRR, we have already lost a third, and it hurts my soul because this money will never return to Romania. In addition, there is suspicion regarding Romania, a suspicion that dates back to 2024, no elections have been cancelled,” he continued.
“We are like Hungary a month ago”
The vice-president of the European Parliament warned that at the international level there are still “suspicions” related to Romania after the cancellation of the 2024 presidential elections, and “another episode of crisis only deepens this suspicion, especially since our country made a great effort to explain to the Europeans what happened”.
“It seems that neither the public is convinced yet, nor all the European leaders. There is also an ambiguity in the area of foreign affairs, you saw that some of the international leaders congratulated Simion, some said “oh no, it's not good”, so somehow it seems that we are fighting territory at the moment. Beyond the intra-party fights, we are more than that, we are like Hungary a month ago, only Hungary came out well”, added Nicu Stefanuta.
He said that he still wants “a pro-European majority” to govern Romania, “because once the extreme right comes to power, it's hard to let go.”
“Forget, he stayed in Hungary for 16 years and they barely, barely managed to escape”, Nicu Ștefănuță also stated, referring to the defeat suffered by Viktor Orban and the Fidesz party in front of Peter Magyar and the Tisza formation in the April parliamentary elections.
