PM’s advisor says “other countries” don’t want Romania to have highways

Darius Valcov, a former finance minister and the current economic advisor of prime minister Viorica Dancila, has launched a new series of accusations on Sunday evening, December 2. He said, among other things, that Romania has no motorways “because of other countries” that would have such an interest, without naming these countries. “There are many countries that would not want Romania to be full of highways today. It would be easier for us if the goods coming from China or the Gulf would be transported to Central Europe on highways or railroads rather than take a detour and go to other distant ports,” Valcov said at local TV station Antena 3, according to local Europafm.ro. He also said that the European Commission allocates only EUR 150 million for the three regional hospitals Romania has planned. European Commissioner Corina Cretu said that European funds would be allocated according to what the Romanian side requires, and that the public-private partnership projects wanted by the Romanian government, including in the case of the three regional hospitals, are not encouraged at the European Commission’s level. In Vlacov’s opinion, Cretu “lies by omission” when she claims that Brussels does not encourage public-private partnership projects. Darius Valcov, who also worked at the governing program of the ruling Social Democratic Party, also said that 43 km of railway have been completed this year, and by the end of the year a total of 187 km of railway will be ready, local Adevarul reported. In addition, he said that a total of 73 km of highways will be open to traffic this year. Darius Valcov has made several controversial statements over the past few months, with some of them being direct attacks against president Klaus Iohannis. For example, in August, he insinuated in a Facebook post that the president may have had a deal with Austrian group OMV’s CEO Reiner Seele related to the offshore law. Then, in early September, he shared on his Facebook page a video in which president Klaus Iohannis was made to look like Adolf Hitler, the Führer of Nazi Germany. The same video transformed the # (hash tag) symbol of the anti-government #Rezist community into a swastika, the symbol of the Nazi Party. Valcov, who was finance minister in the former government led by Victor Ponta, was sentenced to eight years in prison earlier this year