Romanian president says foreign investors urged no early elections

“The message that I received from the investors who lend to Romania – banks, pension funds, and so on – and who ensure its current functioning was ‘no early elections’,” president Dan said, as quoted by Economedia.ro.

The statement attracted considerable attention in Bucharest, coming shortly after the Parliament rejected the government proposed by prime minister-designate Siegfried Mureșan and as Dan prepares to nominate another candidate. His remarks also included a warning against allowing the far-right AUR party into a ruling majority.

The president’s position on early elections contrasts with that of a majority of lawmakers, who have increasingly favoured a fresh parliamentary vote as a way out of the political crisis. AUR has advocated early elections, while the reformist USR has taken a firm position in favour of snap polls, and the Liberal Party (PNL) is moving towards a similar position. Parliament has also already started work on tightening the procedure for organising early elections.

Dan has argued that early elections would disrupt budget execution by preventing a necessary budget revision for the final months of the year, while also complicating preparations for the 2027 budget. However, the prolonged political crisis has already had a similar effect over the past five months, while there is still no clear sign of a rapid settlement unless the president takes a more proactive role in negotiations among the parties.

Dan has also argued against early elections on the grounds that they would create a lengthy electoral process without necessarily changing the political configuration of Parliament.

“Thirdly, let's look at what early elections mean. It means the Central Electoral Office, billboards on the streets, debates in television studios, and by February, we will have a result of the early elections, which, if we look at opinion polls, is about all we have now, and, again, the same parties must negotiate the formation of the same government,” Dan said.

Critics of the president’s position argued that even a relatively modest change in the distribution of seats could alter the balance of power between the parties and eliminate smaller or redundant political formations. They also argued that new elections would give the resulting Parliament a fresh electoral mandate.

Separately, advocates of early elections have pointed to the disputed circumstances surrounding the 2024 parliamentary elections, arguing that the factors that affected those elections were also behind the cancellation of the presidential election held at the same time.