PSD and PNL have traded accusations over the public finances left by Ilie Bolojan’s government before the first budget revision of the cabinet led by Luca Niculescu. The dispute covers the budget deficit, unpaid invoices, accumulated state obligations and money Romania still has to collect under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.
PSD leader Sorin Grindeanu asked Finance Minister Alexandru Nazare, who served in both the Niculescu and Bolojan cabinets, for a public account of the country’s real financial position, including unpaid invoices and work already carried out but not yet billed. He said the party will review each month how measures in the governing programme are being implemented and that financial obligations must be assessed clearly before new measures are adopted. Grindeanu said that before repairs begin, the government must know exactly where it is starting from.
He rejected the claim that the request is meant to invoke a heavy inheritance, which he said Bolojan had done on becoming prime minister. Grindeanu said PSD wants the real situation published quickly so the party can clean up after austerity, and he questioned the results of Bolojan’s fiscal measures while Romania continues to have the largest budget deficit in the European Union and high inflation. He said that when Bolojan took office in May and June last year he described Romania as unable to pay and unable to pay pensions and salaries, and that after a year and a half he described the situation as collapse.
Grindeanu also cited a gap of about 30 billion lei between the cash deficit and the deficit calculated under the European ESA standard and asked for a public explanation. PSD sources say Bolojan left the new executive unpaid invoices of about 50 billion lei.
Bolojan, now PNL leader, rejects the idea that he left Niculescu’s cabinet a heavy inheritance. He accused Grindeanu of acting as a de facto prime minister and setting the government’s agenda, and he contested Grindeanu’s reading of the deficit figures. He said assessments should take account of international rating agencies: Moody’s put Romania’s total 2026 deficit at 5.8 percent of GDP, Fitch at 5.9 percent and Standard & Poor’s at 6.2 percent. Bolojan asked whether Grindeanu was challenging the agencies’ competence and said he should tell them so when they return.
The former prime minister said a deficit recorded at one point in the year should not be confused with the year-end figure, because some investment spending comes before the related European funds are received. He compared it with taking more money out of shoe boxes to pay expenses and refilling them later, so that the planned amount is there at year-end if the boxes are not emptied again. He said PSD is trying to justify possible budget slippages and to avoid measures needed to control public spending, and that Grindeanu either understands nothing or, more likely, is manufacturing excuses for a failure. He warned that a revision allowing new spending without controls could endanger this year’s deficit target and that political promises without financial cover could also complicate the 2027 budget.
Nazare’s published figures show the general consolidated budget deficit at 78.3 billion lei in the first nine months of 2026, equal to 3.81 percent of GDP. In the same period of 2025 it was 102.47 billion lei, or 5.31 percent of GDP. The cash deficit is therefore about 24.17 billion lei lower. Budget revenues rose 11.9 percent and spending 5.5 percent. Public investment reached 107.77 billion lei, more than 25 billion lei above the first nine months of 2025. Nazare presented the results as confirmation of fiscal consolidation, while the Finance Ministry warned that significant obligations remain, including enforcement titles of more than 13 billion lei due in 2026, health-system spending and reimbursement claims under energy compensation schemes.
Romania still has 6.43 billion euros to receive through payment requests 5 and 6 of the recovery plan. Nazare said sums that will not come from the European Commission could increase pressure on the national budget, depending on spending already made and on contractual obligations. Interest costs reached 50.63 billion lei in the first nine months, 10.69 billion lei above the same period last year.
The budget revision is an early test for the new government. The governing programme schedules it within 30 days of investiture, before the legal deadline of 30 November. Sources told Știrile ProTV that Grindeanu and Marian Neacșu went to Victoria Palace on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the revision. Niculescu said it is logical to know the state of the country’s finances and that the revision is urgent, with the assessment running in parallel with its preparation. Under the governing programme, extra needs in health, social assistance and co-financing of European projects are to be covered by reallocations without raising the deficit. The finance minister warned that the final months of the year will strain the budget and that consolidation must continue, including in 2027. The PSD–PNL argument is expected to turn on how large the state’s obligations are, what resources remain and whether the new executive can meet deficit targets assumed at international level.