In January 2023, the Buletin de Bucharest and the Center for Media Investigations published an investigation marked with the disclaimers commonly used on television: “information and images with emotional impact”. With the name Equal opportunities run by the government “Sfânta Gabriela cea Vitează”, a gold business with public funds for her relatives and signed by Ovidiul Vangele and Bianca Albu, the investigation revealed the terrible situation of the residents of the shelter, which the passive Stefan Godey led by the protection of the Firea-Pandele family and the negligent state institutions. Journalists and specialists from the Center for Legal Resources (CRJ) continued to document themselves, they demanded a response from the ministries and institutions authorized to supervise vulnerable people held in shelters, but the only consequence was the removal of the CRJ from the list of civilians. organizations with which the Ministry of Labor cooperates. Georgiana Pascu told the media how Godey, the head of the shelters in Voluntari and Afumac, said that the ministry’s protocol with CRJ, an organization that has been monitoring the situation of people in shelters for many years, was invalid. Labor Minister Marius Budai hastened to cancel it.

The investigations did not stop: in February, journalists published Lagărele Cristina and the “Harmony” of St. Gabriel the Brave: bugs and the smell of urine and feces. Even now, no action has been taken to stop the inhumane treatment illustrated by the photos, videos and testimonies. In July 2023, they came out under the banner “Everybody knew!” four articles that show the mafia connections that link Gabriela Firea, her husband, the mayor of Voluntari, her sister and her councilor to the scoundrels who starved the inhabitants of the shelters, for which they received almost 6,000 lei per person per month. All the normal press at the head picked up this theme and developed it further, adding new evidence that the “God” of business was the master of the house and the eternal employee of Gabriela Firea, wherever he settled.

Entangled in their own lies, Buday, Firea and Pandele reached a politically acceptable limit in the face of quadruple elections next year: the PSD refused to settle the costs of the scandal and forced the two ministers to resign. This time, crosses, akathists and gifts to the People’s Cathedral, preferably from public funds, did not help pious Gabriela, who saw herself as a candidate for the capital’s mayor’s office or even for the presidency. The stage victory of the mass media and the public organization that supported the investigation is indisputable. A mediocre and disinterested political class can always return with the same characters in other positions. There are already rumors that, relying on electoral amnesia, Firea may end up in the PSD on the lists of MEPs. As a reserve, the party of the “elderly” Dan Voiculescu, who recently graduated from theology, promised him support in his candidacy for the post of mayor.

Maneuvering to preserve the image of the government led by Marcel Çolaku means that even now they are harassing control groups across the country in shelters and centers for the elderly and children to show that others are also to blame. Especially opposition mayors. Institutions subordinate to the county councils, the Ministry of Labor or the Family, well supplied with political clients, rubedens and stoas, did not do their job for years, and now they have overdone it. Institutions must be under control and accountable. Since the ruling parties in the formula USL 2 or 3, PSD and PNL, have shamed the criteria of competence and integrity, replacing them with interests and networks, often corrupt by the party, it is difficult to believe that the control institutions will accept the change. It remains for the mass media (with the exception of “trash” and other unethical mass media) to investigate this aspect as well. – Read the entire article and comment on Contributors.ro