A warning vote and a call for new faces

On Friday, 23 October, Ilie Bolojan spoke at the ReThink Romania 2026 summit in Sinaia about the protest vote Romanians cast in recent elections. The PNL president, referred to in the reports as a former prime minister, said that vote was serious but was only a warning. He linked it to coalition infighting, arguing that when many parties in one government cancel each other's actions, they fail to deliver and end up strengthening the anti-system vote. He urged politicians to learn from the '2022-2025 lessons' and warned that the 2024 anti-system vote could return at the next elections unless parties change.

Bolojan said parties must restructure and put forward new projects, bringing in people of quality who understand that Romania's direction is toward the West. He argued that a credible alternative has to be built, and that parties which fail to renew themselves will be overtaken by events.

“If we do not keep pace with the times, the times change us.”

Working with coalition partners

Bolojan said there are rational people in every party and that it is possible to work with them, but that it is hard to get things done with the 'golani', a colloquial term for troublemakers. He said he had worked with UDMR and PSD when he led the administration in Oradea, where he described himself as the biggest UDMR supporter within the PNL. In the recent four-party coalition, he said he tried to be fair with every partner, but some partners agreed at the negotiating table and then said something different in public.

He gave the example of spending cuts, saying that after he announced measures he was left alone with the announcements, and that the real difficulty came with restructuring expenditure. According to Bolojan, the cap on spending worked to some degree, but restructuring is not simple to carry out. He said Romania cannot balance its accounts without it, regardless of who governs, and that restructuring carries social and political costs.

Energy pact and state companies

Bolojan said parties could agree a multi-year pact on energy, adding that everyone already has the data but has divided it up by parishes, a phrase he used to describe parochial thinking. He criticised the split of state energy companies between institutions. Hidroelectrica and Nuclearelectrica sit with the Energy Ministry, while he argued that Transelectrica, the national grid operator, should be moved to the General Secretariat of the Government.

He also pointed to the Modernisation Fund, which Romania had at its disposal in an amount of over 10 billion euros. Bolojan said some of that money is kept in bank accounts because Transelectrica cannot absorb it, while other funds go to projects that add no value to the energy system. He proposed a holding that would bring together several sectors or activities so that it could sell energy at lower prices, which he said would press market prices down for companies whose energy costs decide their viability.

Fiscal agenda for 2027

Bolojan said the new government must avoid wasting 2027, and that closing the analysis of payment requests is essential. He said Romania must collect several billion euros tied to the last two payment requests from the European Fund, money that keeps the country within its deficit target. He called for spending to be controlled until the end of the year and for the 2027 budget to be prepared in time.

He stressed that assessments by rating agencies, which come at the start of the year, matter greatly, and that the government must pass them and show that its actions are serious beyond political rhetoric. He warned that if 2027 is poorly prepared the outlook will be bleak, noting that 2028 is an electoral year and that governments rarely carry out restructuring in such years. In his view, if restructuring is not done now, it will not turn out well.