DNA Case: Consumer Protection turned into friends' protection

Cristian Popescu Piedone, the president of the National Authority for Consumer Protection (ANPC), was picked up yesterday from the seaside and taken to be questioned by prosecutors from the National Anticorruption Directorate. Although, at first glance, the case seemed like a simple formality, the investigation included searches at his home, at the ANPC headquarters and at other relevant points in the network of "well-intentioned intervention”. The suspicion? A warning from a friend - none other than the liberal Dan Radu Ruşanu, former head of the ASF, whose wife owns the International Hotel in Sinaia - that an inspection was coming.

The reason? Friendship.

The justification? Honor.

The stakes? No deviation from the public interest, at least in official discourse. After all, what could be wrong if an ANPC president announces his visit in advance, "with a clean heart”?

The day before the visit to the DNA, a telephone recording published by constanta.info completed the picture: a conversation over a drink in which Piedone, with the air of a general administrator of morality, redrawn the leadership of the ANPC Constanţa from a cherhana setting. "I'll execute him and make you the boss,” he told a subordinate, in a tone that, outside of local administrative folklore, might seem like a joke.

It wasn't. Beyond the colorful language, the mechanism is clear: whoever listens to and responds to the orders of Cristian Popescu Piedone becomes the chief commissioner, whoever opposes him is "executed.” All in the name of an undefined "mission,” but powerful enough to justify even the "anchovies sold for the price of salmon” at Matei's Fish Market.

Appearances are carefully maintained by Piedone: live streams on TikTok, live checks, hotels declared "200 stars” thanks to a fluffy towel and the smell of conditioner. Between the videos - made and edited by unknown persons, in no case by ANPC employees, according to the media - old friends are warned, and new subordinates are promoted. Nothing unusual in an institution that has transformed spectacle into a method of control and familiarity into an undefined regulation.

The former head of ANPC, Horia Constantinescu - recently moved by Piedone from Constanţa to Slobozia to combat illegalities in the Amara resort - reacted: what Piedone is doing is "cheap theater”. Not because there are cameras, but because "the direction is missing”.

When positions are promised over the phone, the checks become PR pretexts, and promotions and sanctions are decided based on the tone of the voice, let alone authority, but on a cast of characters.

And yet, Cristian Popescu Piedone does not seem surprised by the investigation. "I was disturbing”, he says, in the well-known style of the dignitary "on a mission”. Because he would have carried out checks on several multinational companies or corporations, the head of the ANPC also claims.

In a country where image is at its lowest and institutional control is turning into a reality show, Piedone played his role without hesitation. Now, the DNA is analyzing his scenario. "If there is evidence, it means that my phones and those of my driver were tapped," he declared before being taken to the DNA headquarters.

But this material is not just about Piedone or the ANPC. It is about the institutions that are supposed to protect us and how easily they turn into personal tools. When the control becomes a show, the citizen becomes an extra. And that is, perhaps, the most dangerous form of abuse.

At the end of the day, between the announced control, the informed friend, the promised position and the prosecutor knocking on the door, only one question remains: who really protects the consumer, when protection has been transformed into an image platform?