Deputy Prime Minister Dragoş Anastasiu resigns
The Deputy Prime Minister Dragoş Anastasiu has left the Romanian government, following revelations regarding his companies.
Ştefan Stoica, 28.07.2025, 14:00
A month and a few days after its installation, the coalition government in Bucharest, led by liberal leader Ilie Bolojan, suffers its first loss: Dragoş Anastasiu, one of the five deputy prime ministers, the only one without a political background, coming from the business world, announced his resignation on Sunday. His gesture comes amid media revelations that one of his companies was involved in a corruption case in the past. This was solved in 2023 with the final conviction of a tax inspector for bribery and influence peddling.
According to Anastasiu, he and his business partner gave in to the blackmail exerted on them by the employee of the National Agency for Fiscal Administration, signing a fictitious contract through which monthly payments were made to a company indicated by that person. Anastasiu explained that his transport companies were found to be in order at all state inspections, but that this did not exempt him from pressure from the Tax Authorities. This would have been the context in which he gave in to blackmail, all to save his business and employees, Anastasiu stressed. He did not claim that he had acted correctly, but he specified that his company had not committed tax evasion. At the same time, he accused the state of not being a fair partner for the business environment. Anastasiu considers himself the target of attacks generated by the government’s intention to reform state-owned companies and says that he decided to resign in order not to affect the government’s image and its ambitious objectives.
Dragoş Anastasiu: “In this climate, it is very clear to me that I can no longer help. Because, no matter what I say, no matter what I do, the process of denigration based on facts, but taken to the extreme, will continue. This is the reason why, when discussing with the Prime Minister, I told him that I would do more harm than good and that it is time to resign. My departure from the Romanian Government does not mean that the reforms should not continue.”
Dragoş Anastasiu called on the Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan to personally take over the inter-ministerial working group set up to reform state-owned companies, and on businessmen willing to help the state in this process not to demobilize. Following the resignation of his colleague in the government, the Finance Minister Alexandru Nazare admitted that National Agency for Fiscal Administration (ANAF) is a dysfunctional institution, and its abuses are not new. Nazare stated that there has been no genuine wish to reform ANAF, to increase the level of collection and to digitize the institution. The resignation of the Deputy Prime Minister Dragoş Anastasiu was necessary and inevitable, and the reform of state-owned companies will continue, reacted Dominic Fritz, president of Save Romania Union (USR), a party in the governing coalition. The spokesperson for the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) (the nationalist, sovereigntist opposition), Dan Tănasă, considers Anastasiu’s statements as a lamentable way of justifying his actions and an embarrassing attempt to transform bribery into sacrifice and corruption into martyrdom. (LS)
