#2019PresidentialElections/ USR's Barna: Budgetary projection for 2020, one of challenges of new Executive

Save Romania Union (USR) chairman Dan Barna, candidate in the presidential elections, stated on Wednesday, in Timisoara, that the budgetary projection for 2020 will be one of the "significant challenges" of the new Executive, as the "irresponsible PSD [Social Democratic Party] government has pushed the budgetary construction space beyond the limit." "The budgetary projection is an attribute of the Government which will most likely be invested next week (...) after which we will see what calendar is proposed by the Prime Minister designate. I don't want to make the agenda of the Prime Minister designated by President Klaus Iohannis. Romania has been living for three and a half years in a permanent surprise. It will not be a simple budget, because what the irresponsible PSD government did in three and a half years was to push the budgetary construction space beyond its limit. That is why the making of this budget is one of the significant challenges of the next government," Dan Barna stated. The USR leader mentioned that, at the end of this week, he expects the complete list of the Orban Cabinet to see the proposals, because for USR PLUS some criteria are very important and were included in the agreement they have with the Prime Minister designate. "All the persons nominated in the composition of the government must not have been convicted, must not have been accused of plagiarism and must have never collaborated with the Securitate [e.n. - Communist-era secret police]. These are three minimal integrity conditions that we expect and demand from every member of the future government. We will sign the agreement formally towards the end of the week, Saturday or Sunday," Dan Barna explained. Asked what he will do if he gets the status of defendant in the Rise Project case opened in rem by the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA), Dan Barna said he is at peace and is not under any "pressure", as he is sure he did nothing illegal or immoral. "I don't want to discuss about a scenario that I am very convinced will not happen because, as nothing exists, I know 100 percent that there is nothing illegal or immoral in my previous activity. (...) I even asked the DNA to check those projects, because a press investigation is trying to cast suspicions. It's an in rem check, there's no problem, I am under no pressure. Depending on how things develop, we will see, but at the moment I'm at peace, there is no problem, it's very good that the authorities are doing their duty," Dan Barna concluded. AGERPRES (RO - author: Otilia Halunga, editor: Irina Poenaru; EN - author: Razvan-Adrian Pandea, editor: Simona Iacob)