Boss, you won't believe what I heard today! I was chilling at Fane's terrace, sipping a beer and watching a match, when a dude comes up and goes: 'Did you see what Rogobete did?' I'm like: 'Which Rogobete, the Health guy?' 'Yeah, bro, he jumped into the Pfizer scandal!' For real, man, I can't even believe it! Pfizer is demanding over 13 billion euros from us – that's 24 times what the vaccine cost – and now they're freezing our accounts through EUROCONTROL. You don't know what I went through with Mioara when she heard: she said that's why we have no money for vacation, it's all going to those lawyers. No joke, it's terrifying!
Former Health Minister Alexandru Rogobete from PSD stepped up and said that during his term, he tried to reduce the impact. He started negotiations in Washington, together with the then Finance Minister, to see if they could find a reasonable solution for Romania. 'I thought we had to try all legal and diplomatic options,' he said. Listen here, I'm not buying this story. If they were so smart, why did they sign that contract for 28 million doses when the pandemic was already over? And now we're getting our money seized. That's not how it works, bro!
Rogobete also said that since he left office, he doesn't know what happened with the negotiations. 'I don't know what steps were taken, if they continued or the strategy changed,' he said. But come on, man! Shouldn't he know? Or maybe he doesn't want to take responsibility. I don't like it when they blame each other, but this is a 13-billion-euro scam. Mioara, my wife, who works as a cashier at Lidl, said: 'They're taking money from our pockets and pretending it's raining.' And she's right, bro!
This enforcement is being carried out through EUROCONTROL, the European body that handles air navigation funds. They want to recover over 3.4 billion lei and about 18.5 million euros in legal costs. Luckily, ROMATSA's accounts haven't been blocked yet, sources say. But if that happens, how are we going to fly, man? I'm thinking about Brian, who dreams of becoming a footballer and flying to matches in Europe. What are we gonna do, go by cart?
Pfizer sued the Romanian state in Brussels in January 2024 because we breached the contract. We contracted 28 million doses, worth about 550 million euros, but we didn't order the rest because the pandemic ended. Now they're demanding 13 billion – 24 times more. That's the limit, bro! Caragiale would be proud of such a scheme. 'I've seen people trying to shift the blame exclusively to one political direction,' Rogobete also said. Yeah, but who pays? Us, the ordinary Romanians, struggling to pay the installments on our 2008 BMW and put bread on the table.
Instead of the parties arguing among themselves, maybe they should get their act together and find a solution. Otherwise, we'll end up paying this seizure out of our own pockets. I say let's have a beer at Fane's terrace and calm down, because we're getting too worked up. But for now, I'm going to tell Mioara not to dream about that vacation in Antalya this year.
