Nicuşor Dan: Romania’s financial situation is similar to the one I encountered at City Hall

„Romania’s financial situation is similar to the one I encountered in 2020 at City Hall. At that time, I took over an institution with blocked accounts and massive debts. In just two years, we managed to reduce them to zero and unlock investments. I will bring the same approach to the national level,” Nicuşor Dan wrote on Facebook.

He also posted a video in which he recounted the situation at the Bucharest City Hall when he took office.

„Two questions: How much money do we have in the account? 3 million RON. What are our current debts? The answer: 3 billion RON. There’s a lot of talk these days about Romania’s huge deficit, and this is exactly what I found at City Hall when I became mayor in 2020. We were in a situation where the accounts were blocked, meaning the City Hall could no longer pay for any investments, buses were seized by ANAF, and the heating system was at its limits, leaving us wondering if we would even get through another winter. On my first day in office, I called the financial directors. Our current debts were thousands of times greater than the money we had in the account,” Dan explained.

Nicuşor Dan also provided examples of the debts.

„The City Hall had purchased Otokar buses for 165 million lei. They hadn’t been paid for. There was also a debt of 350 million lei from the Constanda family. Then, there was the Ghica bridge, costing 3 billion lei. We negotiated the payments, some for two years, others for three years, and the longest for almost five years. By the end of 2022, we were finally able to say that the City Hall of the Capital had zero current debts. Romania spends 7-8% more than its GDP every year. That means 25-30% more spending than its income,” Nicuşor Dan concluded.