A few days ago, a strictly confidential document from the Ministry of Finance, sent through SRI to the President, Prime Minister, and the Parliament leadership, announced the serious issue of the deficit as early as October 2024, according to a disclosure made by Europa Liberă.
The publication of the report was a shock to the public opinion, confirming that at the highest level of the country’s leadership, there was knowledge about the serious threat looming over the Romanian economy, yet no one reacted, with the spree of unjustified expenses continuing.
A day before the document appeared in the press, Marcel Ciolacu, former Prime Minister and leader of the PSD, had a furious reaction on social media, claiming that Romania is not in a serious economic situation, that there is money, and Bolojan’s decisions are exaggerated.
"I increasingly hear harsh accusations and alarmist theories in recent times about the so-called economic disaster we left Romania in. Some even file criminal complaints against me in a ridiculous manner, without knowing that budget executions are public and anyone can easily verify how the money was spent... But if I have to go to jail to finally have, after 30 years, the Moldova Highway, then I accept it without regrets," wrote Marcel Ciolacu on his Facebook page.
However, the publication of the document contradicts him and shows that in 2024, those who were leading Romania were exclusively preoccupied with elections - local, parliamentary, and presidential.
Was it known or not known
The document transferred by SRI, about which it is not certain whether it is a report from the agency, the Ministry of Finance, based on data collected by the secret service, or just a government document, also shows something, the way political leaders report on the information they receive, in accordance with the law.
Panic is more dangerous than the deficit. Blind austerity does NOT reduce the deficit - it deepens it. It reduces consumption. It cuts investments. The economy contracts. And then we really have a serious structural problem. Blind austerity leads to nothing good. It only turns the budget crisis (solvable) into an economic crisis. Is that what we want? A slowed-down economy, a scared population, and blocked investments? All these things would cost us infinitely more. I absolutely agree that we need to reduce the deficit. That's why we have a Fiscal Adjustment Plan agreed with the European Commission for 7 years. Attention - for seven years
Marcel Ciolacu, former Prime Minister, reaction to accusations of causing a huge budget deficit
After the cancellation of the elections in November 2024, one of the most frequent questions that arose in public debates was whether the secret services knew or not about Russia's hybrid attack, the promotion method of Călin Georgescu, the amounts involved, and the danger threatening Romania?
To this question, neither from the former President Klaus Iohannis nor from Marcel Ciolacu, the Prime Minister at that time, came any response, although they had the obligation to provide it.
SRI, SIE, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, through the documents made public by CSAT, show that they had some information, but it was fragmented, there was no communication between the agencies on the subject, each institution presenting its own version, without the existence of a unifying report to explain the situation created.
Immediately after the cancellation of the elections, the intelligence agencies signaled to the public in their own way that they had done their duty and informed the political decision-makers, in accordance with the law.
The appearance of the document on the deficit may also have this role, that of indirectly showing the general public that SRI did its job. Somehow, the agency wants to tell us that if it associated itself with a report announcing an imminent economic crisis, it means that, similarly, it acted in the case of the security crisis, but the reports were not taken into account by the decision-makers.
Suspicion and control
And from here, we enter the complicated, hermetic, and dark labyrinth of the relationship between the secret services in Romania and the political class.
According to the law, the SRI director is appointed at the proposal of the President of Romania and voted by Parliament. There is a direct subordination of the agency to the head of state. But the legal relationship does not necessarily come with trust.
The personality, level of public support, and character of the president mark his relationships with the intelligence agencies.
Suspicion in this relationship is omnipresent, political leaders do not know what information the agencies have about them, and the heads of the secret services are concerned not to upset the decision-makers so as not to lose their jobs.
Moreover, distrust is fueled by the fact that presidents often use intelligence services to solve their political problems, marginalize opponents, conceal acts of corruption, engage in nepotism, extramarital relationships. Such a dynamic gives the agencies an upper hand over the heads of state, who, the more corrupt they are, the more dependent they become on the shadowy agencies that solve their problems.
After 1990, from the open sources consulted, there has not been a president who has not used intelligence services for their own political interests on various occasions.
An analysis of the relationships between Romanian presidents and intelligence services requires a more extensive space.
Reasons for the lack of reaction
For over two years, SRI has been without a director, and this says a lot about the agency's relationship with former President Iohannis, who avoided making any proposal for appointing a new director after the departure of Eduard Hellvig.
Another episode illustrating the contentious relationship between political leaders and intelligence services was visible in mid-November 2024, two weeks before the subsequently canceled presidential elections, where Marcel Ciolacu, the then Prime Minister, clashed with liberal senator Ioan Chirteș, the head of the SRI Control Commission, regarding the restrictions imposed by George Simion from entering the territory of Moldova and Ukraine.
At that time, there were suspicions, confirmed by the Parliament representative, that the Prime Minister used information from the secret service reports for his own interests, to reach the presidential final alongside George Simion, a candidate with known vulnerabilities in terms of national security.
From the document about the huge budget deficit and the other episodes presented above, it appears that Romania has reached a difficult economic situation, but also with huge gaps in the national security system due to the toxic relationship between the political environment and intelligence services, each party trying to influence, use, and control the other.
The political interests of the President and the Government, the lack of clear legislation, the non-existent control of Parliament, the weak and disorganized pressure coming from voters and civil society have created major dysfunctions regarding the functioning and the relationship of intelligence agencies with the legal recipients of the secret service reports. These are the main reasons why there was no reaction to the announced budget crisis and neither towards Russia's interference and hostility.