Prime Minister Victor Ponta claims “he does not resign”

Victor Ponta claims that the plagiarism allegations brought against him are ” a political and illegal decision”. PSD claims that the members of the plagiarism committee are acquaintances of PDL and the President.

Before heading for Brussels, the Prime Minister told the foreign press the fact that he had been accused of plagiarism is a ”political and illegal decision” linked to his attendance at the Brussels summit and hence his decision not to resign.

”Today’s decision is a political and illegal one, made by the acquaintances of the President in disfavour of my participation in the EU summit. I will prove my integrity before the Ethics Committee of the Ministry of Education! ”.

”These attacks won’t get me to give up the fight I’ve started. There’s no question of me resigning” he said Friday evening, before leaving for Brussels, in a press release issued by PSD and cited by Mediafax.

Shortly before the announcement of the verdict, the PDL MEP, Cristian Preda, demanded that the prime minister should resign, claiming that the latter should respect the promise that he had recently made in an interview for the Spanish publication El Pais, in which he stated that he would resign if the plagiarism allegations be proven.

PSD claims that the decision of the National Committee for Attestation of Titles, Degrees and University Certificates ( CNATDCU) to accuse the prime minister of plagiarism has compromised the institution’s credibility.

In a press release addressed to the members of the committee, PSD alleges that the committee” is pandering to the political interests of PDL and those of the President”.

”PSD claims that Friday’s decision has compromised the committee and the academic medium’s credibility, whose only goal is to pander to the political interests of PDL and those of the President ” the press release states.

PSD alleges that the president of the committee, Marius Andruh and one of the vice presidents, Lucian Pintilie, had benefited from a 7 million lei grant conceded to them by the Ministry of Education during Daniel Funeriu’s term.

PSD claims that Mircea Miclea is an acquaintance of the President, who had faced plagiarism allegations that had yet to be cleared, and received direct benefits from public contracts.

You can read the entire press release here.

Victor Ponta ”plagiarized 85 pages of his doctorate thesis”.

On Friday, CNATDCU concluded that the prime minister resorted to plagiarism for his thesis .

Consequently, the committee, consisting of representatives from the university and academic medium, suggested that the Ministry of Education should revoke the vice president’s title of doctor in law.

The committee added that a significant part of his doctorate thesis consists of excerpts that had been transcribed word for word from the works of several authors, without any notice or reference to the original sources, which he presented them as his own work, Diana Surdu, our RR editor, informs us.

The texts included in the thesis were taken from at least three books, the Committee claims.

”A careful analysis showed that approximately 85 of the 307 pages, the total number of pages of the entire doctorate thesis, excluding the annexes, consist of transcriptions without any reference to the source.

There was supposed to be a clear bibliography for every chapter, or one at the end of the thesis ”professor Marius Andruh says.

He also stated that on the reference list featuring 39 sources, there wasn’t any mention of professor Crețu’s book, from which 40 pages worth of material had been excerpted

On the other hand, the interim minister of education, Liviu Pop, claims that the committee’s decision is void given that the meeting wasn’t statutory.

Moreover, Liviu Pop restructured the executive body of university titles on the day prior to the meeting in which Victor Ponta’s thesis was scheduled for inspection, which was also the last day of his term as interim chief of the Ministry.

Translated by Vlad Nichita
MTTLC, Bucharest University