Bucharest's General Council rejected the municipality's draft budget for this year on Wednesday, April 28. Only 17 council members voted for the budget proposed by mayor Nicusor Dan, while 22 voted against and 14 abstained.

The reformist alliance USR-PLUS, which is part of the majority in the City Council alongside the National Liberal Party (PNL), claimed that the RON 7 billion budget was unrealistic as previous estimates put it at RON 4.5-5 bln (around EUR 1 bln), News.ro reported.

Mayor Nicusor Dan - who ran on the Liberals ticket and saw his ties with former colleagues within reformist USR-PLUS deteriorating gradually afterward - said he was dissatisfied with the risk of delaying the investments and facing problems with the debt service as a result of the vote. He blamed the reformist alliance USR-PLUS, which abstained from the vote on the budget, for the failure and urged it to come up with its own version of the budget.

Prime minister Florin Citu intervened in this conflict and promised to talk with deputy prime minister Dan Barna (a co-president of the USR-PLUS alliance) and see what the problems are.

"We need a budget for Bucharest quickly. These are investments that need to be made," added the head of the Government.

iulian@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Facebook/Nicusor Dan)