Cristian Tudor Popescu, about Bolojan's meeting with the businessman from Vaslui: Not even Grindeanu dreamed of giving such a blow
Cristian Tudor Popescu Source: AGERPRES PHOTO
Journalist and writer Cristian Tudor Popescu reacted after the 15-minute meeting at the Victoria Palace between Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan and businessman Fanel Bogos from Vaslui, stating that the episode “makes him think even worse” and that it should not have taken place.
“After the episode of Prime Minister Bolojan's request to the survivalist Anastasiu to stay as deputy prime minister for another two days, the episode of Bolojan's meeting with a county mobster in the prime minister's office makes me think even worse. This meeting should not have taken place. A prime minister does not meet with a PNL leader and an unknown person in the Government. He can, possibly, do it in the party's headquarters in Modrogan,” Cristian Tudor Popescu (CTP) wrote on Friday. in a post published on his Facebook page and titled “A quarter of an hour as a quarter of a century”.
“Then, the prime minister, when something is put on his agenda, must know in advance who is coming with whom and what he wants. Or, “the treasurer of the PNL comes with a businessman, who has something to say” should cancel the meeting from the start. Or, at most, the individual should be sent to a government economic service to present his ideas”, commented the journalist.
What else Cristian Tudor Popescu says:
- “Immediately after the contact that “caused him to panic” (?!), Prime Minister Bolojan says that nothing happened, nothing happened. Well, it was bound to happen! Have you seen how the clam skin merchant Fănel looks and talks? I wouldn't have talked to him for even 10 seconds. Mr. Bolojan stayed for 15 minutes…
- A man who set a very high standard of intransigence and non-compromise, applied to everyone. A man who keeps thousands of protesters in front of the Victoria Palace without meeting them for a minute. And this man did NOT report the influence peddling carried out in his office to the law enforcement authorities – DNA came across that meeting and the 500,000 euro bribe to make it happen. Bolojan said nothing. He just admitted, faced with the fact, that there was…
- Nor did (Sorin) Grindeanu dream of giving confidence in the prime minister such a blow, as Mr. Bolojan himself did.“
Bolojan's explanations of meeting Bogos
Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan spoke on Friday, in the HotNews studio, about the meeting he had at the Victoria Palace with the businessman Fănel Bogos, arrested by the DNA for blackmail and buying influence. Bolojan clarified that “nothing was requested of me at this meeting, only a man was introduced to me”.
Bolojan said that, given his public position, he meets people all the time and business people weekly. According to the prime minister, the meeting he had at the Victoria Palace with Vaslui businessman Fănel Bogos, who came accompanied by PNL head Vaslui Mihai Barbu, was requested “for political reasons”.
HotNews asked Bolojan if he can trust a man who, as soon as he is appointed party treasurer, thinks about how to plan talks with businessmen in the prime minister's office.
“Let's not make a connection. When you are in a public position you meet people all the time. Everyone is responsible for their actions. Through internal mechanisms when I saw that Mr. Barbu was placed under judicial control I suspended him from all positions. PNL respects legal institutions and, on the other hand, the presumption of innocence. In this meeting requested for political reasons, a man who could run, apart from this I was not asked for anything in this meeting. I did nothing. I was just introduced to a man”, said Bolojan.
Ilie Bolojan, asked if it is usual for party colleagues with businessmen to come to the Government, after the criminal scandal affecting the PNL. The prime minister's explanations about the meeting with Fănel Bogos
Asked if it is usual for party colleagues to come to the government accompanied by businessmen, the prime minister replied: “It is not usual. I have weekly meetings with businessmen. There may be situations in which presidents of the CJ or mayors come who can be accompanied. It is one thing to receive someone who can then do things that are not in their place, and another is to isolate yourself.”
The businessman Fănel Bogos, detained by the DNA, and then remanded in custody for 30 days by the decision of the Vaslui Court, is accused of blackmail and buying influence. Mediafax wrote, citing transcripts from the file, that Bogos turned to “networks of influence” to change the leadership of DSVSA Vaslui, also reaching Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan.
Mihai Barbu, at that time president of PNL Vaslui, treasurer of the party and president of the Railway Reform Authority, is the one who got the businessman from Vaslui to enter Ilie Bolojan. The government said that the conversation between Bolojan and Bogos “had no consequences”.
For his part, Barbu was placed by the National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) under judicial control for a period of 60 days. After the decision of the prosecutors, the PNL announced that it was suspending him “from all positions held within the party”.
The DNA accuses Barbu of committing the crime of using influence or authority in order to obtain money, goods or other undue benefits for himself or for another.
