Deputy Prime Minister Dragos Anastasiu announced on Sunday afternoon that he is stepping down from office, as he can no longer accept 'being denigrated and thus having the image of the Romanian Government discredited'.

'At this moment, in the current political setting, it is very clear to me that I can no longer help, that no matter what I say or do, the process of denigration will continue based on certain hard facts, but taken to the extreme. This is the reason why, as I discussed with the prime minister, I came to the conclusion that I would now do more harm than good, and that it's time for me to take a step sideways, backwards, whatever you want to call it, and resign', Anastasiu told a press conference at the Victoria Palace.

This move occurs after an old corruption scandal involving Anastasiu and his company Touring Europabus Romania resurfaced last week. Back in 2009, a check by the National Tax Administration Agency (ANAF) at the said company found a series of irregularities in the employees' payrolls, and one of the members of the inspection team warned that this would result in criminal charges and 'the closure of the company.' Anastasiu accepted the demand of the respective ANAF inspector, and paid for eight years 2,000 euros a month as bribe disguised as consultancy fees, in order to keep the matter under wraps. However, his business partner later denounced the inspector, who was convicted in 2023, while Anastasiu and his business partner were let free to go.

At the press conference on Sunday Anastasiu argued that the bribery case in which he was involved as a witness was public and broadly known of, and claimed that it's the way the state, through its control bodies, treated companies back then that 'forced him to accept paying this survival bribe'.

He also said that his departure from the Romanian government does not mean that reforms should not continue. 'We have taken important steps in preparing a broad package of reforms, relying on seven pillars, from tax fraud to Romania's image, human resources, streamlining, digitalization, and administrative-territorial reform. These are all important steps towards the reform of state-owned companies that benefit from a tremendous amount of subsidies. We have RON 15 billion in subsidies every year, that each citizen supports out of their own pocket, and this must change radically,' Anastasiu reasoned.

He also called on the prime minister 'to personally take over the working group about to be created as per the memorandum adopted two days ago at the government meeting, and tasked with reforming state-owned companies.' AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Cristian Anghelache; EN - writing by: Simona Klodnischi)