President Nicusor Dan said on Tuesday that the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR) is regarded as a populist and isolationist party whose trademark is 'scandal', adding that the party's accession to government would have resulted in Romania's sovereign rating being downgraded within a week.

Speaking at a press conference held at Cotroceni Palace, Nicusor Dan also addressed AUR supporters.

'I will start by briefly touching on the subject of AUR supporters, for whom I have the greatest sympathy, and I regret that we haven't had more opportunities for dialogue and that, somehow, dialogue has been replaced by slogans on all sides. I also feel sympathy because I have been in a position to criticise the state, to take part in protests - I believe I have attended several hundred - and to sue the state, I think hundreds of times, win cases and see nothing happen. So I understand very well what it means to be outraged by the Romanian state, and I believe this is the main reason why AUR supporters sympathise with AUR. However, if you are a supporter, it is enough to protest, but if you are a political party representing millions of people, protesting is no longer enough. You must assure people that, if you come to power, you are trustworthy and predictable enough and know where you want to go. Unfortunately, AUR is not in that position today. And, to put it very, very directly, AUR in government would have meant Romania's sovereign rating being downgraded within a week,' the president said.

He also explained why AUR's accession to government would have affected the country's sovereign rating.

'Now, neither I nor anyone else needs to prove that AUR is a populist party. (...) It is enough for the financial market to call you populist and treat you accordingly, and that's it. AUR is regarded as populist by the entire financial market, by investors and rating agencies. I have several dozen studies that I can make available to you, showing that in a country where a populist party comes to power, the interest rate at which that country borrows automatically rises. We are at the limit of the fiscal adjustment path, a limit that does not allow interest rates to rise today. More importantly, all three rating agencies - Standard & Poor's, Moody's and Fitch - on whose assessments all investors rely, state explicitly that a possible accession of AUR to power would be grounds for a downgrade. Why is that? Because the economy, investment and financing depend on trust. You invest when you trust that you will recover the money you have invested,' the president added.

According to Nicusor Dan, AUR does not inspire confidence on several fronts.

'On the financial front, they have no sustainable national development plan. They say they will cut taxes, but at the same time they want to buy back all the investments made by foreign companies in the extractive sector. They say they will reindustrialise Romania, but they never say where the money will come from. The people who lend us money want to know what the financial plan looks like, both in terms of income and expenditure, and that plan does not exist. Then, when you have a party whose trademark is scandal, as we have seen even in the Romanian Parliament, it is predictable that, once in power, it will create countless institutional conflicts and affect the stability and functioning of public administration,' the head of state argued.

The president also referred to statements made by the party's leaders against the West.

'And, of course, we have all the statements against the West, against banks, against foreign investors and against countries that have investments in Romania. In other words, if you are an economic consultant and a French company comes to you asking whether it should invest in Romania, you, as an economic consultant, remember that there is an AUR party in government whose leader has said that France is a dictatorship comparable to Iran, that the French president is a dictator and that Romania is a French colony. And then you tell the company that, out of all the possible investment destinations, perhaps Romania should not be the choice this time. You might also remember that this is a party that said it would provide houses for 35,000 euros, collected the identity details of many Romanians and then said it was just an electoral marketing campaign,' the president went on to say.

On the other hand, Nicusor Dan also discussed the foreign policy implications of AUR joining the government.

'I will move on to the second half, the foreign policy and security dimension. AUR is an isolationist party. What does that mean? A party that says it is, in a way, not interested in relations with its partners. And if, in the economy, trust is necessary, among other things, to integrate into production chains that can bring economic development, in security trust is even more important. Because you cannot have security without being integrated into a security network with partners. And this integration means trust, because a partnership means that the other partner shares information with you that is sensitive to its own security. And that cannot happen without trust,' the president said.

He went on to give several examples of AUR's attitude towards various partners.

'The United States and NATO. Can you trust AUR when the party voted against the presence of U.S. troops in Romania? Or when it voted against the law allowing drones to be shot down? Or when it thanked you for excluding its own country from the Visa Waiver programme? Or when it supports a certain Georgescu, who said that the Deveselu base was a diplomatic disgrace that he would reassess? Or when it supports a certain Georgescu, who said that the Mihail Kogalniceanu airbase was being built to attack Russia? In other words, how do you expect to bring U.S. and NATO troops to Romania when you have a party in government saying that the base where you want to station them was built to attack Russia?

'As for the European Union, how can you integrate into European mechanisms on the Eastern Flank with AUR in government, when this party talks about the 'degenerate leadership in Brussels', 'Soviet commissars' and a dictatorship imposed in Europe by Ursula and Macron, or when, in a symbolic gesture, it cuts a cake representing the territorial integrity of a European state? How will you maintain France's role as framework nation in Romania? That is, the country coordinating the efforts of all allies to defend Romania, when, as I have said, France is described as a dictatorship like Iran, along with all the other statements I have mentioned. How can you continue Moldova's EU accession process with a party in government that says Maia Sandu stole the elections in Moldova and that Moldova is a dictatorship backed by the European Commission and von der Leyen?' the head of state inquired.

'And to sum up my answer to this question: AUR's presence in government would raise a legitimate question among our partners as to whether Romania would continue to honour the commitments it has undertaken,' Nicusor Dan concluded. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Eusebi Manolache; EN - writing by: Simona Klodnischi)