Chairman of Save Romania Union (USR) Catalin Drula said on Monday that the case file concerning the purchase of vaccines is "the biggest legal malpractice" he has seen since he entered politics.

He said the case file is "a political attack" on the opposition and said Vlad Voiculescu will remain on USR's list of candidates for the European Parliament election.

"Nothing fits in this story. This is the biggest legal malpractice I have seen since I have been in politics. It's a case file - I don't understand where it's coming from, I have some suspicions, some of them have been presented by the press. I understand that the prosecutor there has anti-vaccination beliefs. I understand that Mr. Bologa, who was head of DNA [the National Anticorruption Directorate] and was not comfortable enough for the current power, was changed because he felt that this case file has no structure, it doesn't check out," the USR leader told private broadcaster B1 Tv.

The USR leader said that the case file "criminalises a procedure" of the European Union and does not refer to "any act of corruption". The USR leader stressed that the vaccines were purchased by the EU, which contracted 4.5 billion doses for a population of 450 million citizens.

"The people with the European Commission who took part in these negotiations decided that. Romania did not contract ten times the population, but 80 million for 19 million citizens (...) In fact, the EU did not take ten times either, because in the end 2.5 billion doses were actually bought at EU level. Romania didn't take 80 million either, only 35 million. No Member State made direct purchases apart from Hungary, which bought its own vaccines from Russia and China. The rest of the Member States participated in a joint procurement mechanism, in which each of these contracts and subsequent acts, established by the EC, participated according to its population," Drula said.

The USR leader deemed outrageous" the way the case file is constructed.

"They take the orders of the European Union, not Romania, and the prosecutor decides which ones are OK. The first five, which are made by Nelu Tataru, he says are OK. The first order made by Vlad Voiculescu, four days after he was sworn in as minister, is also good. The second order turns him, Florin Citu and everyone else into criminals. (...) I read this report, it is the report of an anti-vaxxer, of a man who does not believe in science and of a man who interprets some EU decisions, not Romania's, two years prior," he added.

Catalin Drula pointed out that the decisions on vaccination belonged "entirely" to President Klaus Iohannis and former Prime Minister Florin Citu. He mentioned that President Klaus Iohannis was the one who discussed at European level about Romania's participation quota.

"In the coalition meeting where they discussed which which party would take which ministry and USR was given the Ministry of Health, we asked for vaccination. And we were told: 'No, the vaccination is the heart project of the PNL [the National Liberal Party] and the PNL will coordinate the vaccination'. (...) A report on vaccination came out last year, carried out under the PNL government, in which we can see, on the first page of this report, that vaccination was an absolute success, 'mission accomplished'. Who is there? Klaus Iohannis," the USR leader further said.

He also declared that Germany had ordered 660 million doses for a population of 83 million, of which 200 million were destroyed because they had expired. According to him, if Romania had refused to participate in the European Commission's mechanism, in the weeks that followed, our country would not have received a full tranche, but one corresponding to the order. Drula pointed out that a decision-maker must respond politically for acts of expediency.

"They appointed a chief prosecutor of DNA, Mr Voineag - who is the one who helped to cover up Ciuca's [Nicolae Ciuca, former prime minister, ed.n.] case file - so as to advance it [the case file on vaccines, ed.n.]. When did he do it? When Florin Citu showed signs of dissidence in the PNL and other actors... It is political persecution. I know people in DNA who do an absolutely admirable job and expose themselves through the work they do. And I know that when they look at me tonight, they're ashamed of what's going on. Everybody knows George Matei, that he is anti-vaxxer. Everybody knows that this case file has no substance. What's the corrupt act? Did Citu go to Ibiza with the Pfizer bosses? Does he have any proof? (...) This prosecutor did not find any legal text that has been violated. He chose an extremely vague text from the public finance law, which says that public money must be spent with care," the USR leader went on to say.AGERPRES(RO - author: Irinela Visan, editor: Florin Marin; EN - editor: Simona Iacob)