Accused of leaving the citizens of Craiova in the cold, Ilie Bolojan gives the answer to the mayor Lia Olguța Vasilescu. “Let's talk very openly”

Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan reacted on Friday evening to the accusations launched by the mayor of Craiova, who claimed last weekend that the city's residents are suffering from the cold because of the Government's refusal to allocate funds for repairs to energy groups.

“I know very well that 168 million euros were allocated for a CET in Craiova for 4 years and no work was done there. Did Bolojan appoint those people to the Board of Directors or did I have a direct responsibility on this issue? It is my fault that last year they took a loan of 70 million euros from Eximbank, which we will never repay, also from the Romanian state, for which, apart from pay CO2 certificates or other things, didn't they invest there? I mean, let's discuss things very openly”, said Ilie Bolojan, Friday evening, on Digi24, according to News.ro.

The Prime Minister pointed out that, if things had been well managed in Craiova, it would not have reached the situation where the city would remain in the cold.

“I'm not making accusations, I gave you some figures. I told you that, if the project had been carried out with European funds, if the Ministry of Energy, if the commercial company that is there, the management of the company, those who appointed them to the Board of Directors, the City Hall of Craiova which is… if the basic client of this company had managed things carefully, we would not have ended up in such a situation,” Bolojan said.

He believes that “these situations are not solved by looking for a culprit now”.

“It is solved through a serious project that must be done there, through auctions made at market prices, taking into account the realities of this energy market and through, indeed, a support given by the Government, through various directional possibilities of European funds, modernization funds, in such a way that we have a power plant sized to capacity, correctly and not a bad project, which was done a few years ago”, Ilie Bolojan also declared.

The mayor of Craiova, Lia Olguţa Vasilescu, accused, on Sunday, the prime minister Ilie Bolojan, in a conference held in front of SC Electorcentrale Craiova, that he refused to allocate the amount of 350 million for repairs to the energy groups, which is why the residents of Craiova were left without heat several times.

Later, in an interview on Antena 3, MEP Claudiu Manda, Secretary General of the PSD and husband of Lia Olguţa Vasilescu, stated that Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan “doesn't sing from the same playlist many times” and that there might come a time when those in the coalition “change the fiddle because they no longer respect the playlist”. Manda specified that the playlist means the government program and what is discussed in the coalition.

The mayor of Oradea municipality, the liberal Florin Birta, responded to the PSD attacks on Ilie Bolojan, according to which they “do not sing from the same playlist” and that the moment of “changing the fiddle” could come, drawing a parallel between the operation of the heating system in Oradea, where Bolojan was mayor, and Craiova, where the social democrat Lia Olguţa Vasilescu is the mayor.

“The difference between Oradea and Craiova in terms of the heating system. The same music, but different results”, says Birta, his conclusion being that, when “the administration becomes a show, and politics is played out, it's no wonder that at the first frost, the music stops”.