“What kind of country do we want to leave behind?”. Oana Gheorghiu sent an e-mail to the parliamentarians before the motion. What he wrote to them

Deputy Prime Minister Oana Gheorghiu announced, on Thursday evening, that she sent “a personal message” to all parliamentarians, in which she appealed to them for “wisdom and courage”. In the e-mail sent, she says, she attached the exploratory report on the possibility of listing some state companies.

“This evening I sent a personal message to every deputy and senator of Romania. I appealed to them for wisdom and courage. I attached to this message the exploratory report on the possibility of listing some state companies – the original document, exactly as it was presented in the Government meeting on April 16 and immediately published on the Government's official website”, wrote Oana Gheorghiu, in a message published on her Facebook page.

Why did he write them?

She explains her approach, stating that “every parliamentarian has the right to vote on the censure motion with all the correct information at their disposal, not their distorted version”.

The deputy prime minister insists that the censure motion is based “on a false narrative: that this government would like to 'sell the country'”.

“It is nothing but a manipulation designed to create hysteria in society, built on the reminiscences of the 90s, when the same slogan created the space where others robbed it, stole it and used it exclusively in their own interest”, adds Oana Gheorghiu.

“I have every conviction that the elected representatives of the Romanian people will exercise their vote on Tuesday not out of obedience to a party leader, but out of respect for the Romanians who have given them their trust. History will remember with gratitude those who saved the country from chaos, not those who pushed it towards it,” she added, in the online post.

The day before, the deputy prime minister had denounced a “campaign of public hysteria”, after the allegation in the censure motion, submitted by PSD and AUR, about “the greatest villainy of the last decades”.

She claimed that, through the no-confidence motion, the PSD is trying to turn “a balanced discussion about the reform of state-owned 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. They are all put together in one pot to create the impression of a general and non-transparent operation against the public good,” the deputy prime minister wrote on Wednesday, also in a Facebook post.

“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.

The allegations in the motion

Earlier on Wednesday, the text of the censure motion was read in Parliament 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 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.

What Oana Gheorghiu wrote to the parliamentarians in the e-mail sent in the evening

The deputy prime minister's approach, to send a “personal” e-mail to all parliamentarians, came in the context in which next week, on May 5, the censure motion submitted by PSD and AUR will be debated in the plenary session of the Parliament.

The website of the publication Cotidianul writes that it obtained the e-mail sent by Oana Gheorghiu and published it.

“There are moments when each person must choose between the truth and what, at the moment, seems more convenient to be true. This is one of those moments”, the deputy prime minister told the senators and deputies of the Romanian Legislature, according to the text published by Cotidianul.

The email is structured around the question: “What kind of country do we want to leave behind?”.

What else Oana Gheorghiu wrote in the e-mail:

• “The censure motion against the Government is built around an accusation as serious as it is false: that the Government wants to fraudulently sell the state's wealth.
• I am sending you the document on which this accusation is based. This document is not a political, legal or any other interpretation. This document is the original document, exactly as it was presented in the Government meeting on April 16 and as it was published on the Government's official website immediately after.
• I invite you to read it. I invite you to check it out. I invite you to draw your own conclusions.
• I am not inviting you to support this government. This is a decision that obviously rests with your conscience. What I invite you to do, however, is to decide your vote knowing the facts, not believing the manipulations. Because the facts are verifiable, and the reason invoked for the overthrow of this Government does not exist in reality.
• Please ask yourself one question, away from party pressure, away from the voting order, away from the cameras:
• What kind of country do we want to leave behind?
• Because what we are going through these days is not just a political crisis. It is a moment when the direction of Romania is played, literally:
• Either we direct Romania towards a future where the institutions work, where the truth is based on real facts, where reform is possible even when it hurts,
• Either we go back to the darkness of the 90s, when the same slogan “we don't sell our country” created the space where others robbed it, stole it, abused it and used it exclusively for their own interests.
• The consequences of this election are real and they fall back on Romania and on every honest Romanian who expects the state to function properly.
• You have the real power to decide and I am convinced that you will make this decision not for the benefit of a party leader, but for the 19 million Romanians, who will not be in the Parliament hall with you on May 5, but whose lives will be decisively influenced by what happens there. You have the power to speak truth, not manipulation.
• The document is available here. I invite you to read it before you vote.
• History will remember with gratitude those who saved the country from chaos, not those who pushed it towards it.“

The e-mail ends with the following words: “With confidence, Oana Gheorghiu”.