The leader of USR, Cătălin Drula, spoke, on Sunday evening, on the Digi24 show Briefing about the corruption scandal in which Dumitru Buzatu is involved. In a telephone intervention, Drula said that “in fact, all the PSD people are on edge, that’s why they want to increase taxes” and that Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu could have done more to stop “the robbery of the state budget” . On the other hand, the spokesperson of the PSD, Lucian Romașcanu, says that the way in which Buzatu acted “was not well-known” in the PSD.
“This case of Mr. Buzatu shows us exactly why Marcel Ciolacu wants to increase taxes, and we have been saying it for a year and a half, for two years, since Marcel Ciolacu and PNL have been in government, that it will end here.
This hapless, insatiable party clientele, who at best make do with sinecures, with all kinds of legally paid positions, but more often with such stipends, with poorly made contracts, with dedication contracts, with BMWs the friend someone, from the missing asphalt, all this clientele needs money. That is why Mr. Ciolacu wants to increase taxes.
I was a minister in this country, where I opened a closet, a drawer at the Ministry of Transport, I came across some of these money-hungry guys. I didn’t close the drawer and the cupboard, as it is well known in the public space that there were some very famous cases, I keep telling about those boats bought at double price – 100 million instead of 50 – during the mandate of my predecessor, Lucian Bode, I am the subject of a DNA file.
Consider that there, basically, it’s 50 million lei. Here it is 1.25. It adds up, one million, with 50, with 30, and we arrive at those billions that are missing from the state budget, the hole that Mr. Ciolacu turns a blind eye to. And he also asks us, the Romanians, to cover because they “are in trouble” without this money.
I’m still outraged by few things in politics, you get angry, but this surprise that he feigns towards Mr. Buzatu – «oh, what a surprise that he got a rope!».
“Absolute. First of all, they should stop this robbery from the state budget. I remind you that we are already four months since he was prime minister, but two years since he was in government, that even when Mr. Ciucă was prime minister, Marcel Ciolacu was the one who decided practically on every decision, there were no cuts of aberrant state expenditures. This waste was not cut, the contracts with dedication, stints, positions, increments and other things, only a lot was talked about them and nothing was done.
So Marcel Ciolacu, first of all, should tell those in the party to stay calm about the bribes. I took the expression from Mr. Buzat, who said that “he’s on the dole”, that is, his previous stints were over.
Marcel Ciolacu does not do this and cannot do it. If he did it, the next day he would no longer be president of the PSD, because that is the reason for the existence of the PSD and the PNL – these networks that take money from the state, and I have seen it up close, and which I can’t do without this public money.
They cannot be competitive in a normal market economy environment, they need these contracts with dedication, they need fake expertise that closes their eyes to the quality of the works, they need data under the table. These are the businessmen close to the party – they have no problem with the upcoming tax increases because they only affect honest entrepreneurs in Romania”, said the USR leader on Digi24, in the show moderated by Liliana Ruse.
Romașcanu: PSD noted with great disappointment Buzatu’s deed
Liliana Ruse: The president of USR said that the fact that in PSD this is the recipe for survival or enrichment and that the party would live off these people (Dumitru Buzatu), it was well known in PSD what Mr. Buzatu was doing?
Lucian Romașcanu, PSD spokesperson: There was nothing notorious, as it was not even in the headquarters of the parties mentioned earlier because otherwise they would make complaints, because otherwise it is a criminal case.
There are a lot of double standards and this kind of opposition that the USR makes externally and Mr. Sighiartău does nothing good, neither for the USR nor for the PNL (…) Int
The PSD noted with great disappointment the act of Mr. Buzatu, the measures were taken immediately, more than those you mentioned have disappeared from the foreground of PSD politics, we are in a direction that we consider good, and people appreciate what we do in government and together with PNL and how we relate to cases that are not only PSD’s (…)”
Liliana Ruse: Each time the PSD leadership was taken by surprise. I would like to ask if it is not a management problem if you do not know what is happening in the territory with important people?
Lucian Romașcanu, PSD spokesperson: You are always surprised by such news and how we cannot have a parallel criminal investigation body of the Romanian state, it is normal that you are surprised by such a matter. You can’t have prosecution-level management.
We have management in the form in which Mr. Buzatu was voted three or four times as president of the CJ, Mr. Buzatu won electoral results, if he understood to use his position in his own interest, here is what the state bodies did the job and I saw what was happening. PSD reacted accordingly and on the spot.
Liliana Ruse: By saying that Buzatu was voted in, you place the responsibility on the electorate, you proposed it.
Lucian Romașcanu, PSD spokesperson: Mr. Buzatu had no problem when he was proposed as a candidate. In no way is it the fault of the electorate of Vaslui for electing him, and this confirms that he performed in the field of administration, and it is not the electorate’s fault that Mr. Buzatu used his position for personal purposes, I tell you that political management has certain criteria – administrative performance and electoral performance. Honesty is among them until proven otherwise.
If we didn’t have any information, maybe PNL has some DNA in corruption, we won’t know what Mr. Buzatu is doing with his trunk”.
Editor: Adrian Dumitru
