Oana Gheorghiu denounces a “campaign of public hysteria”, after the accusation in the motion about “the greatest villainy of the last decades”

Deputy Prime Minister Oana Gheorghiu believes that, through the no-confidence motion, PSD is trying to turn “a balanced discussion about the reform of state companies” into a “campaign of public hysteria”. It denounces the “aberrations” in the text of the motion and claims that the reform of state companies does not mean the liquidation of public assets, does not mean “giving up control” and does not mean secret sales.

It is a “cynical and deeply irresponsible” tactic, accused Oana Gheorghiu, on Wednesday, in a message published on her Facebook page.

“How is a manipulation born? You take a little truth, add a few elements where opinions are easily divided, and then pour over whole kilos of conspiracies. (…) It is a cynical and deeply irresponsible tactic. We are talking about politicians who were part of the government, who took part in all the discussions and all the decisions, but who today choose to deliberately distort the truth in a political strategy that condemns Romania to chaos and poverty”, he states Gheorghiu, according to Agerpres.

She adds that PSD privatized, during the Năstase government: Sidex Galați, Petrom, Distrigaz Sud and Distrigaz Nord. Also, during the governments of Ponta and Ciolacu, the following were listed: Nuclearelectrica, Romgaz, Electrica and Hidroelectrica.

At the same time, Petrișor Peiu was a member of Romtelecom's Board of Directors at the time of the company's privatization, says the deputy prime minister. Peiu was also president of Sidex Galati a few months before privatization and a special administrator in the context of the relaunch of the privatization of Electroputere Craiova, mentions Oana Gheorghiu.

“Contrary to the aberrations in the text of the motion, the reform of state companies does not mean the liquidation of public patrimony. It does not mean “giving up control”. It does not mean a secret sale. The reform means, first of all, that the state becomes a responsible owner, which acts in the name and in favor of the Romanians, not for the benefits of the smart guys who prey on the state companies”, the deputy prime minister added.

Oana Gheorghiu emphasizes that the censure motion does not represent “an honest criticism” of a public policy, but a “premeditated distortion” of reality.

“Very different companies, at different stages and in different logics, are deliberately mixed: companies already listed, companies under exploratory analysis, companies in the process of reform, strategic companies, companies with structural problems and even companies from the defense industry. All are put together in one pot to create the impression of a general and non-transparent operation against the public good,” the deputy prime minister added.

Gheorghiu appeals to the signatories of the motion to put the interest of Romania and the citizens above the interest of the party leadership.

She points out that an exploratory analysis or a theoretical option is presented as if decisions had already been made.

Oana Gheorghiu also states that public debate and questions are necessary, but that they must be based on facts, “not on hysteria”.

According to it, the PSD-AUR censure motion is “an attack” on Romania, based on “manipulation and fake news, intended to hysterize public opinion”.

“We see the same technique used in the case of companies such as CEC Bank, Hidroelectrica, Romgaz or SALROM. Strong names are invoked, with public and emotional charge, precisely to build panic. Not to have a serious discussion about the state's property policy, about the role of the capital market or about the instruments through which the state can strengthen its corporate discipline. Reform 9 is similarly attacked and any procedural or European basis is challenged, as if the simple fact that the Government is analyzing options and building decision-making tools would, in itself, be a fault”, she also denounced.

Petrișor Peiu's accusations

The censure motion initiated by the PSD together with the AUR against the government led by Ilie Bolojan, entitled “STOP the “Bolojan Plan” to destroy the economy, impoverish the population and fraudulently sell the state's wealth”, was presented on Wednesday in the plenary session of the Parliament.

The debate and vote on the motion will take place on Tuesday, May 5.

The text of the motion was read by the leader of the AUR senators, Petrișor Peiu.

“Romania is not a commodity, and state companies are not assets to be liquidated to cover political failures. Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan has reached a point where he deliberately confuses reform with sale and strategy with improvisation. Under the pretext of obligations from the PNRR and “exploratory analyses” quickly drawn up beforehand, the Executive is preparing the most extensive disposal of strategic assets in the last two decades, without consultation in the coalition, without public debate and without a minimum of political commitment. At the same time, the public discourse of the Bolojan government raises serious questions about the fact that the Romanians are prepared to invest massively in these listings! In fact, an operation is being prepared that has nothing in common with the public interest, orchestrated by those who trumpet transparency. strategic state companies are taken out of the transparent circuit of the market and directed, bypassing the Stock Exchange, through the accelerated placement mechanism, to selected investors, under discretionary conditions, at prices lower than the real ones”, emphasized Petrișor Peiu.

The motion speaks of “the greatest atrocity in recent decades”

The initiators of the motion mention, in the text of the document, that through these transactions the Romanian state would lose “billions of lei” through the undervaluation of assets. The parliamentarians who initiated the motion of censure state that, in order to distract public attention, “for the purpose of the greatest villainy of the last decades”, a list of profitable companies was drawn up, mixed “skillfully” among loss-making companies, and “pedaled” on the urgency of putting them up for sale.

The proposals regarding Hidroelectrica and Romgaz go in the same direction – two profitable companies, pillars of energy security, which annually contribute over 5.4 billion lei to the budget, are transformed into targets for accelerated sales, the initiators say.

The censure motion claims, among other things, that “the Romanians were betrayed, abandoned and ignored” by a prime minister who cut from everywhere, without taking social realities into account. The signatories of the motion also say that, while Romanians feel the daily drop in living standards, the most dramatic in the last 25 years, Ilie Bolojan continues to ignore reality and present as a success a policy that actually produces poverty and social tension.

The initiators of the motion remind Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan that he said about certain categories of people that they are “like rats” that gnaw from the state's pantry, and instead of apologizing for having committed “a monstrosity of Nazi origin”, comparing people to rats, he insisted that it was only a metaphor, to make himself understood by people.

“When you hold such a high office, Prime Minister Bolojan, you should have known the Nazi origin of such associations. You should have known that the German weekly Der Sturmer, which ran from 1923 to 1945, often used your lordship's so-called metaphor to designate the undesirables. But you probably have as rudimentary a historical culture as an economic one! Or don't you? no one cares about anything, as you have proven in the 10 months in which you led the Romanian Government! For all these reasons, the Parliamentary Groups of the Romanian Union and PACE submit this motion of censure and request the dismissal of the Government led by Ilie Bolojan! Romania does not need an executive that liquidates its resources one who knows how to administer them! This Government under the leadership of Ilie Bolojan has shown that it cannot do one or the other. Therefore, the initiators of the censure motion claim.