Patriciu deems investigation as abusive

The chairman of the Rompetrol Group, Dinu Patriciu, yesterday accused the authorities and President Traian Basescu of jeopardising Rompetrol”s operation and its employees” jobs through the investigation he deems as abusive. Patriciu told a news conference that Basescu was responsible for the “anticorruption hysteria” that broke out in Romania. “This man became the leader of the country by chance. He was right when he said the Romanian people had two communists to choose from. On the one hand a materialist-dialectic communist, with all the perversity of this concept, and on the other hand an activist of collectivisation. The latter got elected. The country is being run by a complete demagogic populist, who has no solution for the development of the Romanian society. He seeks a second term,” Patriciu said. When inquiring what would have become of Rompetrol had Adrian Nastase been elected President, Patriciu said he voted for Basescu because the party he has been and will continue to be a mere member of for a long time was part of an alliance. “Rompetrol”s evolution should not depend on who is in power for a small amount of time. In a civilised country, separation between politics and the business environment is real, not just bragged about like in Romania,” Patriciu said. The Rompetrol chairman said it was illegal and ungrounded for the prosecutors to demand that all the shares held by Rompetrol Netherlands in the Romanian subsidiary Rompetrol Rafinare (owner of the Petromidia Refinery) be preventively seized. ZF