Romania’s economy will suffer in the coming period due to investors’ fear that George Simion could become president at Cotroceni, says tax consultant Adrian Bența.
The expert, who also specializes in auditing European funds, stated in an interview with News.ro that some investors have already started to withdraw their capital from our country.
Their main concern is that, once in office, Simion will install a government to implement the economic plan of Călin Georgescu, involving the disguised nationalization of companies.
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Among the measures announced by the Georgescu-Simion tandem, as per the governance program of the former, is that all companies in Romania will need to have at least 50% of shares owned either by the state or by a Romanian citizen. This is unacceptable for foreign investors, who cannot afford to invest in something they do not control, explains Adrian Bența.
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"A large part of investors are worried about the potential president of the country, Mr. Simion, who would implement a Georgescu government. And if we take a look at Mr. Georgescu's economic programs, there are some very, very worrying elements. Some are very fanciful. And the main worrying element for a foreign investor stems from the idea that either the Romanian state should own a minimum of 50% of a company, or a Romanian citizen should own a minimum of 50% of a company.
These foreign investors consider that, in fact, we are talking about a disguised nationalization here. And if you ask me, as an economist, it's a fatal mistake, in the sense that the Romanian state is not capable of properly managing its own companies. An example is the shipyard in Mangalia, where the Romanian state took over 51% of the shares and from 2,000 employees, there are only a few hundred left, and it has gone into insolvency and bankruptcy," stated Adrian Bența.
The tax consultant describes the scenarios awaiting Romania, depending on the outcome of the vote on May 18:
- A victory for Nicușor Dan would likely be followed by a Bolojan government with more competent ministers than those of recent years and with healthier economic policies.
- A victory for George Simion opens up two possibilities, either the new president does not implement his campaign promises, or he does implement them and then we face a real disaster. Romania would lose foreign investors, tens of billions of GDP would evaporate, hundreds of thousands of people would lose their jobs, taxes would increase dramatically as the EU cuts off our European funds, and we would, as they say, be Europe's pariah. We would be isolated once again!