Breaking Dragoș Anastasiu resigned from the position of Deputy Prime Minister: “It is clear to me in this climate that I can no longer help, because no matter what I do will continue to denigrate facts, but taken to extreme”
The resignation of Deputy Prime Minister Dragoș Anastasiu comes after the disclosures that for 8 years, during 2009-2017, his companies bribed an ANAF inspector in order not to have problems. Anastasiu acknowledged the bribe of ANAF employee both in front of DNA and judges.
Dragoș Anastasiu is the first member of the Government to leave the Bolojan Cabinet a month and four days after the investment in office.
“At this moment, in this climate, it is clear to me that I can no longer help. No matter what I would say, no matter what I do will continue the process of denigration based on facts but taken to the extreme. It is why by discussing with the prime minister I told him that I will do more harm than good and it is time to take a step in the back or to the side,”
The bribe file at ANAF
The information regarding the involvement of the company of Deputy Prime Minister Dragoș Anastasiu in the corruption file have been reported by the reality and can be found in the decisions of the Bucharest Court and Court of Appeal, consulted by HotNews.
Heard in the criminal prosecution phase, as well as in the two stages of the trial in the court, Dragoș Anastasiu acknowledged the corruption facts that have spread over 8 years.
He explained that he chose to accept the proposal of the inspector who had come to control his companies, although he perceived that it was a “blackmail”, as he said in court. Anastasiu considered that if he did not offer the bribe to the official ANAF, his company risks being closed, and the employees “will stay on the road”. The current deputy prime minister also told the hearings that the official had threatened a director of the company that “he will put his employer in prison”.
In a response sent on Friday for G4media, and then in a press release publicly transmitted on Saturday, DNA said that Anastasiu and his business partner had the capacity of “witness-venture”
The representatives of the Government of Romania reported on Friday that the “circumstances of the case” in which Deputy Prime Minister Dragoș Anastasiu acknowledged in court that his company gave a bribe to an ANAF inspector “have nothing to do with the quality of deputy prime minister and to the duties of Mr. Dragoș Anastasiu”.
Brought to Cotroceni de Bolojan, Anastasiu followed and to the Government
Dragoș Anastasiu was appointed in February by Ilie Bolojan, immediately after taking over the mandate of interim president, as an honorary counselor for the relationship with the business environment. He continued in Cotroceni in the first month of Nicușor Dan's term. Together with Radu Burnete, an economic counselor in Cotroceni, Dragoș Anastasiu was part of the technical working group that worked on measures to reduce the budget deficit.
From June 23, he went to the government as a deputy prime minister on “reform” issues of the budget system in Ilie Bolojan's office.
Dragoș Anastasiu, 61, is a graduate of medicine in Germany, where he lived for a while. In Romania he did business in tourism, transports and hotels, the best known being the Travel Agency and the Eurolines transport group. He was the president of the Romanian-German Chamber of Commerce.
In recent years, Anastasiu has been the head of the Nonguvermental Organization Rethink Romania, a think tank that generally grouped business people and dedicated, among others, to “limiting the number of public policies elaborated” on the knees “, without well -documented premises.”
What was he saying about the arrival in the government
Anastasiu was one of the businessmen in the private area who spoke and advocated, permanently, to reduce the budget system. In 2019, he told German business people: “Prepare, the single share will be canceled and 400,000 budgets will be expelled.”
The statements about the imminent redundancies were resumed from the position of counselor in Cotroceni. “One third of the state employees are incompetent, brought on piles and relationships. They have to leave,” said Anastasiu, being compared to Elon Musk and the well -known Doge department.
He challenged the need for the statements of wealth of dignitaries and people employed in the public system to be transparent. “Let's get rid of this stupidity with the declaration of wealth put in public,” said in May 2025, in a show at First News, Dragoș Anastasiu.
In an interview with Digi 24 after the announcement that he would be deputy prime minister, Anastasiu said that his appointment is explained by the fact that Ilie Bolojan “wanted to introduce the business style.”
“The reforms are made by the ministers, except that there are certain issues that are destroyed and the ministers must be helped, to have the relationship with the business environment, we must have the relationship with the civil society. Mr. Bolojan thought that someone is to be focused on these things.” said Dragoș Anastasiu.
