Commissioner Creţu threatens to sue Romanian media over misquotes

‘See you in court,’ commissioner said.

Corina Creţu, the European commissioner for regional policy, has accused Romanian media outlets of misquoting her and said she had “no choice but to go to court” in a Facebook post Thursday.

Creţu objected to the way media reported a heated exchange during a citizens’ dialogue in Athens on Wednesday, accusing Pro TV, Hotnews, Libertatea and others of portraying the episode inaccurately for political gain.

The incident involved a back-and-forth between Creţu, the EU’s Romanian commissioner, and Zoe Konstantopoulou, the former speaker of the Greek parliament.

Konstantopoulou fired the first shot, accusing Creţu in Greek of “oppressing” her country by being part of an institution that imposed severe austerity measures despite the fact Greeks rejected them in a referendum. She added that Creţu had imposed a “dictatorship of the European Commission” in the country. Konstantopoulou then alleged Margaritis Schinas, a European Commission spokesperson and Greek national who was also in attendance, had rigged the Greek referendum.

“People are dying in Greece,” Konstantopoulou yelled.

“People are dying everywhere,” Creţu fired back in English. “Come to live in Romania if you don’t like [it] in Greece.” She then defended her record on Greece, telling the audience she had appealed to the European Parliament for a change in the rules to support the country.

Romanian TV channel Pro TV instead reported Creţu had said: “What if the Greeks are dying of hunger! There’s poverty everywhere in Europe. Come to Romania to see.”

Creţu said she could no longer allow media to misrepresent her comments, writing on Facebook: “I have decided to go to court. I have full trust in the Romanian justice [system],” signing off with “See you in court.”

A video of the exchange can be seen here, between 2:15:00 and 2:22:00.