The hardest political equation for the most tested president

1. The Romanian Parliament currently consists of 9 entities: 7 parties (PSD, PNL, USR, UDMR, AUR, POT, and SOS) plus the Group of Minorities and Independent Parliamentarians. A very complex political equation with many unknowns and a maximum potential for blockage and instability.

2. The Romanian Government is composed of 4 parties (PSD, PNL, USR, and UDMR) that have: different interests, different electorates, complex organizational structures built on confrontation, and a deep political ethos in which mutual hostility is dominant.

3. The President of Romania was elected in the context of the most severe crisis of the Romanian democratic regime since its re-establishment in 1990, managing to become president following the mobilization of a heterogeneous coalition formed from electoral bases with often opposing visions and interests. Of the second-round voters for President Nicușor Dan, only 36% came from the first round. The remaining 63% came to the president's camp in the second round. It is true that 70% of young people aged 18-24 voted for Nicușor Dan (according to the INSCOP poll conducted on election day, which accurately estimated the final election results). But it is equally true that 64% of people over 65 years old (the preferred voter base for PSD) voted for Nicușor Dan. In the other age groups, the scores in the second round were much more balanced, even with a slight advantage for George Simion in the 25-44 age category. Therefore, the real voters of the President of Romania in the second round come from multiple areas, with often divergent interests that the president must represent. The claim of a minority group of voters and some opinion leaders to have a monopoly on the political action of the president is both undemocratic and, I dare say, somewhat arrogant.

4. Romania has been in a full information war for several years, denied by most politicians, but as real as it can be, a harsh war that has brought Romanian democracy to its knees, elevated radical populism, causing serious and almost irreconcilable fractures in society.

5. Furthermore, the times we are living in are marked by the largest military confrontations since World War II, with major security and economic risks that have direct effects on people's lives.

All these 5 landmarks impose that the balanced representation of all parties and the ongoing negotiation between ultra-fragmented political groups and social groups, with different and often divergent interests and needs, be the only reasonable political pathways to avoid absolute disaster: namely, a country thrown into an unprecedented political crisis, with a risk of social explosion, economic collapse, and the capture of power by political vectors deeply controlled/influenced by a hostile foreign power.

Therefore, I believe this is the supreme political responsibility of the president and the prime minister. To seek consensus as much as possible, to negotiate continuously among the ultra-fragmented components of the entire system, and to ensure that all essential and minimally healthy parties in society and politics are heard and represented, namely at least those that have coalesced in May 2025 and avoided total disaster in the presidential elections.

And this is the key in which I read the recent decisions of President Nicușor Dan. Disappointing for some of his voters (about a third), but necessary to maintain the overall balance and to build, under these political, social, internal, and international conditions, a minimal vital power infrastructure if we still want to have a relevant president for the next 4 years.