Ilie Bolojan warns Romania’s political class: “We urgently need a government” to control spending

Interim Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan says Romania urgently needs a government with a full mandate to control spending and continue reforms. He warns that the country faces additional budget pressure in the coming years and cannot remain in a period of political provisional rule.

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Each percentage point of decline brings us closer to a balance in which we consume what we produce, not what we borrow.

In a message published on Facebook, Bolojan said measures adopted so far had produced results. He said the deficit during the first seven months of the year was 37% lower than in the same period of 2025. Public investment reached 76 billion lei, nearly 15 billion lei more than a year earlier, while state personnel spending declined.

“Each percentage point of decline brings us closer to a balance in which we consume what we produce, not what we borrow,” Bolojan said. He acknowledged, however, that the budget adjustment had contracted the economy by reducing consumption financed through borrowing. “The economy lost the growth that was, in fact, an illusion created by this debt-fuelled consumption,” he said.

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The economy lost the growth that was, in fact, an illusion created by this debt-fuelled consumption.

Bolojan said the future government would have to address a deficit estimated at 5.3% of gross domestic product in 2027. The disappearance of grants from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, higher defense spending, the indexation of salaries and pensions, and interest costs will all put pressure on the budget.

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We are in a period of provisional rule that must not continue.

He said the interim government had completed the recovery plan, preserved confidence in Romania through two rating assessments and navigated overlapping domestic and external crises, but its tools remained limited. He warned that abandoning structural reforms or giving in to populist pressure to increase spending could leave Romania in an even worse position. “We urgently need a government that consolidates what we have achieved so far, continues changing the economic model from consumption to investment, keeps state spending under control and collects money efficiently, so the economy can grow naturally, on healthy foundations, toward real prosperity,” Bolojan said.

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We urgently need a government that consolidates what we have achieved so far, continues changing the economic model from consumption to investment, keeps state spending under control and collects money efficiently, so the economy can grow naturally, on healthy foundations, toward real prosperity.