Romanian Deputy PM Resigns Over Old Bribery Case

Anastasiu was never charged with a crime and said his company had paid all its taxes.

The Romanian Parliament in Bucharest, Romania, on Dec. 21, 2024. Andrei Pungovschi/Getty Images

Romanian Deputy Prime Minister Dragos Anastasiu resigned on July 27 after an old corruption scandal resurfaced.

Anastasiu had been tasked by Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan with overseeing the reform of state-owned companies as part of the coalition government’s push to reduce the largest budget deficit in the European Union. The deficit sat at 9.3 percent in 2024, according to S&P Global.

Last week, the old bribery case resurfaced just weeks after Anastasiu took the job. It involved one of his firms, which had allegedly been blackmailed by a tax inspector into paying 2,000 euros per month in bribes—disguised as consultancy fees—from 2009 to 2017 to avoid lengthy inspections.

His company later denounced the inspector, who was convicted in 2023.

Anastasiu was never charged in relation to the scandal but was involved in the case as a witness.

He said his company had paid all its taxes and that he had been forced to “accept paying this survival bribe” because of the way the state treated companies in the past.

“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,” he said at a press conference in Bucharest, Romania.

“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.”

The conservative opposition Alliance for the Unity of Romanians Party described Anastasiu’s resignation as a “gesture of moral hygiene.”

“The lamentable way ... he tried to justify his actions shows exactly why Romania has been stuck for 35 years between ’survival bribes’ and ‘enrichment bribes,’” party spokesman Dan Tanasa said, according to Agerpres.

“To serenely state that ‘you gave a bribe so that your company would not be shut down’, as if you were a national hero who saves employees, shows contempt for the law, for the honest Romanians and for all entrepreneurs who respect the rules and duly pay their taxes.”

The Romanian government, set to raise several taxes in August—including excise duties, the value-added tax, and other levies—along with planned cuts to state jobs and bonuses, has already faced multiple street protests.

Earlier in July, the coalition government survived a no-confidence vote.

The coalition is made up of four pro-EU parties: the Social Democratic Party, the National Liberal Party, the Save Romania Union, and the Hungarians’ Union, which represents the country’s Hungarian minority.

Romania, which joined the EU in 2007, has been beset by political turmoil since a presidential election was voided after the first round of voting in December 2024.

In that round, conservative outsider Calin Georgescu received the most votes, but the ballot was later annulled by the Constitutional Court of Romania following allegations of electoral fraud and Russian interference. Moscow has denied meddling in Romania’s politics.

Georgescu was barred in March from participating in the election rerun, which took place in May.

In that vote, Nicusor Dan, mayor of Bucharest, won the presidency, defeating George Simion in the second round after Simion had led in the first.

Simion challenged the result in the Constitutional Court, but his appeal to annul the election was rejected.

Reuters contributed to this report.