President Klaus Iohannis said that Romania’s 2019 national budget has been hastily put together based on unrealistic economic projections, warning that the budget is not of the leadership of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), main at rule, but Romania’s.

“President Klaus Iohannis points out that this budget is not the budget of the PSD leadership, but of Romania, of our stability and prosperity in the coming years,” Agerpres reads.

Iohannis added that the draft budget with Parliament now is based on “political crony appropriations.”

“This budget, which should have been drawn up mid-November last year, was only debated on January 31, 2019, after the PSD and ALDE [Alliance of Liberal and Democrats] leaders came back from vacation. It’s a hastily conceived budget built on unrealistic economic projections and on political crony appropriations, which PSD has the audacity to fast track through sham debates in Parliament,” added Iohannis.

He points out that the essential responsibility of the government and Parliament is to identify sustainable financial solutions for each area, criticising the fact that “PSD resorts to new populist approaches that risk making Romania vulnerable amidst the ongoing geopolitical context marked by uncertainty as well as heightening risks and threats against NATO countries.”