Bolojan vows action against PNL branch leaders over debts from 2020 and 2024 campaigns

Debts from two campaigns

On 9 November 2026, PNL president Ilie Bolojan told a press conference at Parliament that the party still owes money from the 2020 local elections, where four county branches carried debts, and from the 2024 election campaign. He said the party must spread out and settle those obligations, and that the leadership had already taken the necessary decisions to do so. Bolojan declined to give amounts, saying they depend on penalties and ongoing negotiations, and that the figures would be clarified in the coming period.

The National Political Bureau (BPN) had approved unanimously on Sunday, 8 November 2026, the start of procedures to recover sums tied to unpaid invoices and to contracts signed without respecting the party statute. The decision was made public in a press release issued after the meeting, which gave no further detail. Bolojan added that everything would be put before the public, saying:

“We have nothing to hide, and it is normal for it to be known, as clearly as possible, how all the sums we committed were spent”

Contracts that broke the statute

Bolojan explained the mechanism behind the debts. A county branch could sign contracts up to a set threshold on its own, while anything above it needed approval from the party's national treasury structure. Several contracts were signed above that threshold without that approval. When they went unpaid, creditors sued and courts approved penalties, which Bolojan said could be several times the base amount.

He argued that the central party should not inherit debts created in this way, saying:

“It seems normal to me that we take action against those responsible for breaching the statutory provisions and for not paying these contracts”

He made clear that the action would target those who fail to find a settlement with the creditor to spread out the payments.

The 14.1 million lei judgment

The High Court of Cassation and Justice ruled against PNL in its dispute with the Permanent Electoral Authority (AEP), a decision the party lost for good in September. PNL must now return over 14.1 million lei to the state, money used to promote a book by former party president Nicolae Ciucă. The tax agency ANAF said it would enforce the debt, stating:

“Regardless of whether debtors are individuals, legal entities or political parties, ANAF applies the legal mechanisms for collecting outstanding obligations”

Under the procedure the agency described, a payment demand starts enforcement, and the debtor then has 15 days to pay or to notify the tax body that it intends to seek mediation. The agency stressed that a debt does not automatically lead to garnishment of bank accounts or seizure of assets.

Disputed penalty clauses

Lucian Bode, the former general secretary who signed the contracts at the centre of the dispute, rejected the suggestion that he had indebted the party. He said that as general secretary he never signed a contract that did not respect the law. Bode said 2020 contracts carry penalties of 0.5% per day on the full contract value, so that even after 99% was paid, penalties are still calculated on the whole amount, which he called a great mistake. The contracts he signed, he said, carry penalties of 1% per day on the outstanding balance only.

Bode said he had asked Bolojan directly whether the decision concerned him, and that Bolojan had said it did not.

Reactions and the merger

MEP Siegfried Mureșan told Digi24 that the current leadership inherited a precarious financial situation and that the former general secretary and the branches that signed the contracts should share the burden. Asked whether Bode was the former general secretary he meant, Mureșan said it could have been, adding that who signed and who bears responsibility must be established. Digi24 sources report that the leadership is considering court action against former leaders. They also say branches in Giurgiu, Ilfov and Călărași, whose leaders recently opposed Bolojan, could lose their voting rights in the BPN if they do not settle their debts within two weeks.

In the same meeting the BPN approved opening negotiations on the absorption merger with Forța Dreptei, led by Ludovic Orban. Bolojan also presented a plan to build a centre-right alliance with a credible programme for voters by 2028.