Former President Traian Băsescu believes that Romania could have been close to early elections by now if President Nicușor Dan had hastened the procedures after the fall of the Bolojan Government. He says that organizing early elections is not impossible, even though Romania has never gone through such a process before.
Asked on Sunday evening on Digi24 if Romania is ready for early elections, Băsescu replied that this cannot be determined in advance.
"You can't say you're ready or unprepared. This experience has never been done in Romania, and if necessary, we will go through and see, seeing and doing. Certain legislation probably needs to be issued. But it's not something impossible to do," said the former president.
Băsescu believes that the issue is the time lost since the beginning of the current political crisis.
"In any case, if I look at it, in the event that the president had acted much faster, in a month to go through the processes, now, after two months, we could have started the procedure for early elections, we were close to early elections at this moment. Too much time has been lost, but it shows something that no one wants to emphasize. These parties, under a fallen government, did in Parliament what was necessary," said Băsescu.
Băsescu: Nicușor Dan's message was against the Mureșan Government
In the same show, the former president also criticized Nicușor Dan's repeated messages that he does not intend to dissolve Parliament and trigger early elections. In Băsescu's opinion, this position would have encouraged parliamentarians to reject the Mureșan Government, as they would not risk losing their mandates in new elections.
When asked why he thinks Nicușor Dan repeatedly transmitted this message, Băsescu replied: "Because he wanted the Mureșan Government to fall." "So this message given so insistently during the preparation of the Mureșan Government, he gave it several times and even on the last day. The message was - stay calm, I won't dissolve Parliament," said the former president.
However, Nicușor Dan has a very different position on early elections. The president explained after the rejection of the Mureșan Government that such a scenario would mean approximately five months during which Romania would have an interim government, without the possibility of making a budget adjustment.
"Early elections mean five months where we can't make adjustments, it means we won't give money to ambulances, we won't give money to the healthcare system," said the head of state.
For the first time, constitutional conditions are met
Romania is in an unprecedented situation: the conditions provided by the Constitution for the dissolution of Parliament are now met, after the Legislature rejected two government proposals - the cabinets led by Adrian Veștea and Siegfried Mureșan.
According to Article 89 of the Constitution, the president can dissolve Parliament, after consulting the presidents of the two Chambers and the leaders of the parliamentary groups, if the Legislature has not granted the vote of confidence for the formation of the Government within 60 days from the first request and only after rejecting at least two investiture requests.
Dissolving Parliament is not automatic, but remains an option for the president.
Nicușor Dan announced that he does not intend, at least at this moment, to go for this option. On Monday, new consultations with parties are scheduled at the Cotroceni Palace, followed by a new designation for the position of prime minister.