President Klaus Iohannis and others spoke out Monday against the effects of corruption on society and its citizens as the world marked International Anti-Corruption day.
But the opposition Social Democrats used the occasion to take a dig at Sweden and its telecommunications company Ericsson which was recently fined in the U.S. for allegations of bribery in five countries.
The Social Democrats often claim that there is graft in all European countries and Romania has been unfairly singled out.
The foreign policy department of the Social Democracy Party said Monday it had called the Swedish embassy in Bucharest “to personally thank the diplomatic and local staff (and) to express our sincere appreciation for the constant help they gave the Romanian state with public statements about common efforts to fight corruption and other anti-social phenomena”
“Unfortunately, the line was busy. We think it’s possible that the Ericsson equipment is to blame,” a posting on Facebook said.
Last week, Ericsson agreed to pay more than $1billion to resolve allegations of bribery, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
The department said that the company had “admitted to a years-long campaign of corruption in five countries to solidify its grip on the telecommunications business.
The settlement is believed to be one of the highest ever under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
It involves a $520m criminal penalty to the justice department and a payment of $540m to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The U.S. justice department named the five countries involved as Djibouti, China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Kuwait.
The Social Democrats won election in 2016 and embarked on a contentious judicial overhaul that critics said sought to undermine the rule of law and make it harder to punish high-level corruption.
Romanians staged the largest protests since communism ended and the government’s efforts to change the legal system drew rebuke from the European Union and the United States. The Social Democrats were ousted in October in a no-confidence vote.
