Political Scandal in Bucharest

“An impossible situation for Romania,” this is how President Klaus Iohannis termed the announcement made by the National Anti-Corruption Directorate that Prime Minister Victor Ponta, who is also the President of the Social Democratic Party, is charged with criminal offences.

“I call for the Prime Minister’s resignation”, said the President in a brief statement to the press on Friday afternoon, after meeting the Premier.

To make the situation really impossible, the Prime Minister states in a Facebook post that it was Parliament that appointed him, therefore only Parliament can dismiss him.

“I believe that observing the constitutional principles is essential for our society and I cannot possibly accept that a prosecutor of the National Anti-Corruption Directorate is above Parliament, the Government and the citizens of this country,” reads the premier’s message. This is how Ponta responded to the anti-corruption prosecutors’ announcement that he was being prosecuted for corruption.

The National Anti-Corruption Directorate in Romania ordered the start of criminal proceedings against Prime Minister Victor Ponta for forgery in documents under private signature, accessory to tax evasion and money laundering in the case regarding the energy companies Turceni and Rovinari, in the south-west of the country, where legal assistance contracts were signed in a fraudulent manner.

In the same case, the prosecutors decided that Victor Ponta must also be prosecuted on three counts of conflict of interests, in connection with his position as Prime Minister of the country.

All these offences are reportedly tied to another politician who has made the headlines in Bucharest this week, the Social Democratic Senator Dan Sova. On Tuesday, his fellow MPs denied, for the second time in three months, the request of the Anti-Corruption Directorate to have Sova arrested as accessory to abuse of office, in the same Turceni-Rovinari case.

He has allegedly cashed in hundreds of thousands of euros, as part of procurement procedures within the two power companies, causing the state to lose the equivalent of over 16 million euro.

Some of the money, the media have been reporting for weeks, was handed over to Ponta himself, and Sova’s short-lived term as Transport Minister is presumed to be a proof of gratitude on the Prime Minister’s part.

Puzzled by Ponta’s decision not to step down, analysts do not venture to make any predictions for the time being. Together with their junior partners in the ruling coalition, namely the National Union for the Progress of Romania, the Conservatives and the Reformed Liberal Party, the Social Democrats have a comfortable majority in Parliament, which is why the censure motion also tabled on Friday by the Liberals in opposition stands small chances to pass.

However, as commentators say, it is entirely up to the Social Democrats to overcome this impossible situation and to salvage their public image, already stained by countless corruption scandals, by sacrificing the leader who brought them back in power three years ago.

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