In an interview given to Realitatea TV Plus on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, Romanian President Nicușor Dan addressed several current issues, including anti-drone cooperation with Ukraine, the annulled election results, and the government crisis that has prompted him to nominate a prime minister for the third time this year.
The defense ministries and companies of both countries are working on the details, and Dan personally met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Ukraine last week, while expert teams remain in constant contact, Nicușor Dan noted in response to a question from Ana Maria Păcuraru.
Regarding the elections, Dan recalled that the vote was invalidated because a candidate violated mandatory campaign finance regulations, thereby gaining an unfair advantage. He stated that a year earlier, the prosecutor general had presented evidence showing that Russian influence had targeted the Romanian press, extending to the elections as well. According to the president, this is not an isolated phenomenon, but part of a global process affecting the whole of Europe, on which a detailed report will be prepared—though he did not share concrete information on whether TikTok or Meta/X platforms played a role in the matter, nor whether decision-making politicians were aware of the interference at the time.
Romania's President Rules Out Snap Elections
Regarding the domestic political crisis, the president made it clear that he rules out the possibility of early elections. He named the government-formation talks led by prime ministerial nominee Siegfried Mureșan as his current priority, who has ten days at his disposal to try to secure support from parliamentary parties.
Dan also firmly rejected Mureșan's suggestion that early elections might become inevitable. The president emphasized that his constitutional authority extends solely to appointing the prime minister designate, while the formation or downfall of a government by a parliamentary majority is strictly a parliamentary matter in which he does not interfere. He similarly dismissed as purely a parliamentary affair the proposal that Mureșan might offer a government position to Ilie Bolojan—who had a similar previous government program—calling it a more nuanced issue than what the presidential mandate covers.
Dan reiterated the two main conditions he sets for the future government: that Romania maintain its pro-Western orientation and stay on track with the budget deficit target agreed upon with the European Commission, given the complexity of the current situation—while the details of the government program itself will be the subject of parliamentary debates and consultations.