Business association asks parties to join and defend democracy

“The November 24, 2024 elections are a wake-up call for Romanian democracy.

A relatively unknown candidate, openly pro-Russian, managed to win the first round of the presidential elections with 22.95%, significantly ahead of the second-place contender.

Romanian Business Leaders firmly supports European values: freedom, democracy, and a free market. We want Europe at home, with everything it represents—prosperity, well-paid jobs, education, and a place where our children will want to live.

We make an open call to all democratic forces to demonstrate political maturity and responsibility by forming a united pro-European and pro-Atlantic front ahead of the parliamentary elections on Sunday, December 1, and the second round of presidential elections on December 8.

Now more than ever, we need political maturity and a major political compromise from pro-Western parties to ensure we continue to enjoy the hard-earned freedom we won 34 years ago.

The results of the first round of the presidential elections must be seen as a clear vote of no confidence in the current political class. Populist, anti-EU, and anti-NATO rhetoric has gained traction among more than 2 million voters who cast an anti-establishment vote.

This is a critical moment for Romanian society! We call on PSD, PNL, USR, UDMR, and other democratic political forces to form a united front to defend democracy from the cold winds blowing from the East.

For a prosperous entrepreneurial environment and a society we want to live in, we need a functional democracy, a business ecosystem anchored in European legislation and the single market, and fiscal, institutional, and political stability.

Romania must remain actively engaged in maintaining economic and social progress. Romanian Business Leaders firmly supports the continuation of the pro-European and pro-Atlantic trajectory, the only path for Romania to break away from the past and look toward the future through European lenses.

We support the pro-European and pro-Atlantic course, the only one that has brought us prosperity and peace!”