Listen up, I found out something good this morning from a buddy of mine who knows money. He says the Foreign Investors Council, FIC, has elected new leadership. They put Alessio Menegazzo, CEO of PPC Romania, as president. He replaces a Frenchman, Gilles Ballot from Carrefour. Vice presidents are Mihaela Bitu from ING and Alexandru Reff from Deloitte. Treasurer remains Alexandru Lupea from EY. All with big company names, like you know them from the evening news. FIC has 115 companies with foreign capital, their turnover is 26% of Romania's GDP. That means they have the cash, bro, they have the dough. Menegazzo says they want to make Romania a regional investment hub. He talks nice, like from a book: dialogue with authorities, public policies, competitiveness. But I look at my pocket and I see only price hikes, not investments.
But wait, here comes the sadder part. The president of the Cluj County Council, Alin Tișe, said it straight: "We waste 3 kilometers of highway per day." That's exactly what we pay in interest on the external public debt. And how much is the debt? 230 billion lei. And the interest for 2026 is 58.8 billion lei. Man, madness! Per day, 164 million lei go to interest. Not to hospitals, not to schools, not to highways, but to interest. He says that at 7-10 million euros per km of highway, we lose 3-4 km per day. Man, it's a tragedy, bro! We in Berceni have been waiting 10 years for a road without potholes, and they throw money on interest. I was watching Mioara when she pays the electricity bill and she said: "They took our money again!" But look, it's not just us crying, even Cluj, with their bubble of 4000 euros per square meter, complains about the same problems.
And it doesn't end here. On top of the money, the weather hits us too. A polar air front is coming over the country, with temperature drops of up to 10 degrees. Meteorologists issued an orange code for atmospheric instability from Thursday 12:00 to Friday 10:00. In Bucharest, they sent RO-Alert messages for flood risk and strong wind. From 33 degrees, it drops to 17. And on the weekend, in the north and center, lows below 10 degrees. That means we dress like autumn, bro! I was thinking about Brian, who plays soccer in the yard, he'll be shivering after the ball.
But let's not forget the slick moves. A 45-year-old Ukrainian was caught at Calafat, in Dolj, with 343,700 euros hidden in a minibus. Hidden, man, in special compartments, under panels. Border police discovered them. And on top of that, he had an arrest warrant from Ukraine. Now a criminal case for money laundering, the investigation is with the Prosecutor's Office attached to the Dolj Tribunal. Well, what do you know? These guys try to launder money, while we pay installments to the state. I look at my 2008 BMW and say: "Man, buddy, you have 343,000 euros hidden, I have 200 lei in my wallet and I'm happy I have gas for a week."
