Oana Gheorghiu accuses Grindeanu of approving the stock market listing of TAROM and other state companies when he was Minister of Transport and publishes the document. The PSD leader's reply

Acting Deputy Prime Minister Oana Gheorghiu accused PSD leader Sorin Grindeanu on Wednesday that, during the time he was Minister of Transport, he approved a memorandum regarding the listing on the stock exchange of several state companies, including TAROM, Compania Nationala Aeroporturi Bucharest and the Administration of Maritime Ports. The head of the PSD responded to the accusations and claims that Oana Gheorghiu confuses the term “proposal” with “approval” and that she transforms a list of rejected proposals into assumed decisions, which “is not a different interpretation of the facts, but an inversion of them”.

Oana Gheorghiu published on her Facebook page a memorandum approved in March 2025, in which the signatures of several members of the Government appear, including that of Sorin Grindeanu.

“Proof of the lie of Mr. Sorin Grindeanu. Yesterday, in the Parliament, PSD President Sorin Grindeanu brought down the Government to stop the listing of state companies. But last year, PSD Minister of Transport Sorin Grindeanu approved the listing on the stock exchange of the following state companies: TAROM, Compania Nationala Aeroporturi Bucuresti, Compania Națională Administratia Porturilor Martime SA, Societatea Carpatica Feroviar Romania SA, Company National Timișoara International Airport Traian Vuia”, wrote Oana Gheorghiu, in the online post.

According to Oana Gheorghiu, the document also contains listing proposals for CEC Bank, Romanian Post, Romanian Lottery, Eximbank, National Printing Office, Romarm, Romgaz, Cuprumin, Salrom National Salt Society, Oil Terminal, Oltenia Energy Complex, ELCEN, CNAIR, Uzina Termoelectrică Midia, SN a Apelor Minerale.

“I received this document today. Obviously, I checked its authenticity and received confirmation that the document is original. The document includes the list of companies, argumentation, calendar, action plan. All these elements, approved by Mr. Sorin Grindeanu”, said Deputy Prime Minister Oana Gheorghiu.

“What does the document say? That the listing of state companies is an OECD recommendation. That it is an objective assumed by the PNRR. That it is necessary to reach milestone 443. That authorized intermediaries must be selected, government decisions adopted, public offers prepared. So, Mr. Sorin Grindeanu fired Ilie Bolojan because the latter wanted the listing of state companies. That is exactly what Mr. Sorin Grindeanu himself had approved last year. Today, Mr. Sorin Grindeanu is PSD's proposal for the position of prime minister”, concludes Oana Gheorghiu.

Grindeanu: “Mrs. Gheorghiu confuses “proposal” with “approval””

The president of the PSD, Sorin Grindeanu, rejects the accusations and claims that Oana Gheorghiu presented as “approved” some proposals included in a preliminary stage of the memorandum.

“I carefully read Mrs. Oana Gheorghiu's post. I understand the indignation, especially when you don't read the first page of the document. If she had read it, she would have noticed that the memorandum was initiated by Mihnea Claudiu Drumea, the party colleague of Mr. Ilie Bolojan. If she still made the effort to publish it, let's read it together. To the end, not just as far as it suits.

1. Mrs. Gheorghiu confuses “proposal” with “approval”.

The memorandum contains three distinct lists, not just one:

• List of gross proposals received from the Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Transport, Bucharest Stock Exchange and Fondul Proprietatea (pages 5–6). This is where Mrs. Gheorghiu copied her red list.

• Intermediate list resulting from the working sessions – 6 companies (page 6).

• The final list proposed to the Government for approval (page 9, “Conclusions”) — three companies: CNCIR, National Compania Porturilor Maritime Administration, Societatea Carpatica Feroviar Romania”, wrote Grindeanu, also in a post on Facebook.

“TAROM is not in the final list. Compania Nationala Aeroporturi Bucharest is not in the final list. Timișoara Airport is not in the final list,” said the PSD leader.

“They are rejected proposals. Mrs. Gheorghiu presents them as approved proposals. This is not a different interpretation of the facts. It is a reversal of them,” continued Grindeanu.

He claims that what he actually endorsed is “a technical memorandum” that “analyzes the legal framework applicable to a possible listing, lists the proposals received from various institutions, filters those proposals and proposes to the Government a short list of three companies”.

“My opinion concerns the document as a whole, including its conclusions, that is, including the exclusion of TAROM, CNAB and the other companies that Mrs. Gheorghiu presents as “approved by me”. To say that I approved the listing of TAROM based on a document that explains why TAROM is not proposed for listing is, to put it mildly, an exercise in imagination,” said Grindeanu.

“Listing on the stock exchange does not mean selling the company”

He also claims that the role of the memorandum was to fulfill milestone 443 of the PNRR, which provides for “at least 3 listed/leased/restructured state companies in the field of energy and transport”.

“I, as a minister, approved a technical document that proposes the most prudent way to fulfill it — with three companies, not with twenty! Claiming that “Grindeanu wanted to sell the country” because I approved the implementation of a PNRR obligation is an accusation that, if true, should be addressed to the governments that negotiated and signed the PNRR, not to a minister who executes it,” the PSD leader claims.

“”Listing on the stock exchange” does not mean “selling the company”, the former Minister of Transport also said.

The accusations in the censure motion and Oana Ghoerghiu's reply

In the text of the censure motion, read in the Parliament by the leader of the AUR senators, Petrișor Peiu, a series of accusations were made regarding the intention of the Bolojan government to list on the Stock Exchange shares of profitable state companies.

“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”, Petrișor Peiu emphasized a week ago, when the motion was read.

The initiators of the motion mentioned, 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 contribute more than 5.4 billion lei to the budget annually, are transformed into targets for accelerated sales, the initiators also claimed in the text of the motion.

Later, Oana Gheorghiu claimed that, through the censure motion, PSD is trying to turn “a balanced discussion about the reform of state companies” into a “campaign of public hysteria”. The Deputy Prime Minister accused the “aberrations” in the text of the motion and stated 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.

“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,” wrote the deputy prime minister last Wednesday, in a post on Facebook.

“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.