By Luiza Ilie and Gergely Szakacs
BUCHAREST (Reuters) – Major foreign business chambers in Romania, including the U.S., UK and Germany, voiced concern on Wednesday about what they described as a fast deterioration of the investment climate and the credibility of central Europe’s second-largest economy.
Romania’s politics have been in turmoil since hard-right presidential frontrunner George Simion’s surge in a first-round vote led to the collapse of the pro-Western coalition government, and caused widespread concern about Romania’s already strained finances.
With a decisive run-off due on Sunday and a poll showing Simion and centrist Bucharest mayor Nicusor Dan running neck-and-neck, the business chambers said political decisions must be stable and coherent to keep Romania on its Euro-Atlantic path.
“The Romanian business sector represented by our organizations underlines jointly the accelerating deterioration of the business environment and the erosion of Romania’s credibility,” a joint statement by eight investors associations and business chambers said.
A Simion victory could isolate Romania, erode private investment and destabilise NATO’s eastern flank, where Bucharest plays a key role in providing logistical support to Ukraine as it fights a three-year-old Russian invasion, political observers say.
The head of the country’s largest investors’ group told Reuters last week that a deepening political crisis after the first round of Romania’s presidential election raised the risk of pushing the country into recession.
(Reporting by Luiza Ilie and Gergely Szakacs)
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