PSD insists that Oana Gheorghiu was wrong when she sent emails to STS and ADR asking if they were interested in the services of a German group

The leader of the PSD senators, Daniel Zamfir, requested, in a press conference, on Thursday, an investigation into the activities of Deputy Prime Minister Oana Gheorghiu, whom he accuses of “having an objective to facilitate, to favor certain companies, especially foreign ones”.

Also on Thursday, the government employees' union asked her to resign and accused her of lobbying in favor of a foreign company, and the former president of ADR, Bogdan Vlad, accused her of pressures that ended with his dismissal.

In reply, Oana Gheorghiu stated on Facebook that all her activity was public and transparent, and that those invoked were not of a commercial or secret nature, but were exploratory discussions about which she also communicated in the public space.

Where did the conflict start?

In February, Deputy Prime Minister Oana Gheorghiu sent several emails from an official government address to institutions asking if they are interested in the services of the Schwarz Digits company, the Gândul publication revealed on Wednesday. This company is a subsidiary of the German giant Schwarz which owns, among others, Kaufland and Lidl stores.

Among the institutions to which he gave emails are the Authority for Digitization of Romania (ADR) or the Special Telecommunications Service (STS).

“In the context of the exploratory meetings held at the end of January 2026, at the government level, with representatives of the Schwarz group (Schwarz Digits), as well as considering the European strategic directions regarding digital sovereignty, reducing technological dependencies, data governance and strengthening the resilience of digital infrastructures, please let us know if, from the STS perspective, potential solutions, services or capacities of interest have been identified”, it was mentioned in such an email presented by The thought.

The publication also drew attention to possible influence peddling because in the past Kaufland donated 250,000 euros for a project that Gheorghiu worked on when he was part of civil society and active for “Give Life”. In an answer for Euronews, Oana Gheorghiu declares that the approach of sending some institutions a question regarding possible needs or areas of interest does not represent influence peddling.

Political reactions

In a press conference organized on Thursday, PSD senator Daniel Zamfir requested an investigation into the activity of the deputy prime minister. He invoked two subjects: the report drawn up regarding a possible listing on the stock exchange of some minority packages from state companies, respectively the exchange of emails with ADR and STS.

“So, Mrs. Deputy Prime Minister Gheorghiu relapses. We now see that, constantly, she had an objective to facilitate, to favor certain companies, especially foreign ones, and these things, obviously, I think must not remain so from the state institutions”, stated the leader of the PSD senators, quoted by Agerpres.

He emphasized that he is waiting for measures after the installation of the next Government. The activity of Deputy Prime Minister Gheorghiu was widely criticized in the motion submitted by PSD and AUR that led to the dismissal of the Bolojan Government.

“Mrs. Gheorghiu will be sent home, and the state bodies to investigate the way businessmen negotiate directly with a high official of the Government the sale of state shares, holdings, contracts and all kinds of things in a non-transparent way, obviously in the interest of those companies,” he continued.

The former ADR president accused pressure

On Thursday, the former president of the Authority for the Digitization of Romania, Dragoș Vlad, also went public with a reaction. He was dismissed from the head of the institution on May 1 by a decision of Prime Minister Bolojan. Then, the Minister of Economy, Irineu Darău, accused Vlad of “failures in the chain” of ADR which “must have consequences”, referring including to the syncopes at Ghiseul.ro and SEAP.

The Authority for the Digitization of Romania has the role of realizing and coordinating the implementation of strategies and public policies in the field of digital transformation and the information society.

Dragoș Vlad declared for Gândul that he was thinking of filing a criminal complaint and “felt pressure” that came not only from Deputy Prime Minister Gheorghiu but also from the Minister of Economy and Digitalization, Irineu Darău, and his advisor.

“His adviser tells me to pay maximum attention to the address, and I asked: what does it have to do with it? My question was: what does the stage of the implementation of digitization projects in PNRR have to do with the meeting with Schwarz? All kinds of messages appeared about Schwarz: “Have you thought about it?”. Verbal, telephone or Whatsapp communications”, Dragoș Vlad accused.

Dragoș Vlad was appointed to head the ADR in 2022 with the support of the PSD president at the time, Marcel Ciolacu, according to news.ro.

Oana Gheorghiu: “The information is completely false”

The Deputy Prime Minister declared that Dragoș Vlad's statements are “completely false” and “artificially build the suspicion of an illegitimate approach where there was only an institutional exchange of information, in the logic of identifying possible useful solutions for the digitization process”.

“The discussions with Schwarz Digits had no secret character and no commercial character. They were exploratory discussions, carried out in a transparent manner, for the potential benefit of the institutions of the Romanian state, to understand what types of solutions or expertise exist and if some of them could be relevant to the needs of the public administration”, said Oana Gheorghiu, in a message on Facebook.

She pointed out that all communication with the German company was also public on social media and in the public transparency register.

“These meetings were not only publicly communicated, including on social media, since January 20, but they were also included in the Government's public transparency register, RUTI. To suggest that there was anything occult or hidden is, therefore, simply false,” she added.