One of the three presidential candidates that stand a reasonable chance to challenge current Romanian president Klaus Iohannis in the second round of the presidential election is Dan Barna, a relatively fresh face in national politics – normally this brings an advantage, but not in his case.
According to recent polls, the leader of the center-right Save Romania Union (USR), parliament’s third largest party, Barna (44) can expect up to 19 percent of the votes, but even if he manages to beat recently deposed prime minister Viorica Dăncilă, his chances against Iohannis are probably slim to none due to allegations that before entering politics his law consultancy firm had channeled European Union funds to friends and relatives.
Born in the Transylvanian city of Szeben (Sibiu, Hermannstadt), just like Iohannis, Barna is a lawyer by training, who established a development consultancy firm, DCG, in 2007 with three other partners. Just as the presidential election campaign began, Rise Project, a Romanian non-profit organization of investigative journalists published a long and amply documented article about how his consultancy firm swallowed hundreds of thousands of euros in EU funds. The article focused on three major projects, all of which eventually came to nothing, but his firm was involved in over two hundred projects in total.
His clients included four ministries and two county administrations between 2009 and 2014. The Rise article claims that the projects – one of which also involved his sister, Gabriela Popa – came under fire due to a series of inflated invoices, nepotism, and payments for never-performed services.
The Romanian Anti-Corruption Directorate (DNA) launched an investigation into his firm, but the proof they found was seemingly inconclusive – mainly for lack of trying, says Rise.
Barna was never officially charged with any crimes, but the allegations – should he make it into the second round of the presidential election to face off with Iohannis – would prove to be his Achilles’ heel against a sitting president who is running on an anti-graft ticket.
Title image: Romanian presidential candidate Dan Barna, leader of the Save Romania Union (USR) (source: ziare.com)
