{"id":6065,"date":"2025-07-28T08:03:47","date_gmt":"2025-07-28T08:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/?p=6065"},"modified":"2025-07-28T08:03:47","modified_gmt":"2025-07-28T08:03:47","slug":"romanian-deputy-prime-minister-announces-resignation-after-bribery-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/?p=6065","title":{"rendered":"Romanian deputy prime minister announces resignation after bribery scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deputy prime minister Drago\u0219 Anastasiu announced his resignation from office on Sunday, July 27, after it was revealed<\/a> that he was a witness in an older corruption case involving one of his companies. The company, Eurolines, paid bribes for eight years to a financial inspector from Romania\u2019s tax agency ANAF.<\/p>\n

The former official said he can no longer accept \u201cbeing slandered and discrediting the image of the Romanian government.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter what I say or do, the process of slander will continue, based on some facts, but taken to the extreme. This is the reason why, after discussing with the prime minister, I told him that I would do more harm than good, and that it is time to step aside, step back, however you want to call it, and resign,\u201d said Anastasiu in the press conference, cited by Agerpres<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The former deputy prime minister had become the face of a reform process<\/a> meant to optimize the Romanian state apparatus and reduce public expenditures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy departure from the Romanian government does not mean that reforms must not go forward. We have made important steps in preparing a broad reform package, across seven pillars, from tax fraud to Romania\u2019s image, human resources, simplification, digitization, and administrative-territorial reform,\u201d Anastasiu explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anastasiu made a public appeal to the prime minister \u201cto personally take over the working group” charged with reforming state-owned companies. He also encouraged business organizations to continue assisting the state in reforming itself.<\/p>\n

Finally, the embattled official also made a last-ditch defense in his own case. He said that while his company paid bribes, it never committed tax evasion.\u00a0\u201cThere are two types of bribes, survival bribes and enrichment bribes.\u201d The first were paid out by businessmen in the \u201890s and 2000s to keep their businesses going, not to enrich themselves, he said.<\/p>\n

Anastasiu\u2019s resignation was welcomed by leaders of the ruling coalition.<\/p>\n

USR President Dominic Fritz stated that it was \u201can act of normality, dignity, and accountability\u201d that strengthens the government\u2019s ongoing reforms. \u201cWe are preparing the reform of state-owned companies, and painful measures are coming against privileges and clientelism. The fight we are waging is not just for show. It is real and is met with proportional resistance,\u201d Fritz wrote on Facebook.\u00a0<\/p>\n

radu@romania-insider.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

(Photo source:\u00a0Dragos Anastasiu<\/a>\u00a0on Facebook)<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Deputy prime minister Drago\u0219 Anastasiu announced his resignation from office on Sunday, July 27, after it was revealed that he was a witness in an older corruption case involving one of his companies. The company, Eurolines, paid bribes for eight years to a financial inspector from Romania\u2019s tax agency ANAF. The former official said he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6065\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}