Deputies Reject Call for the Prosecution of PM Victor Ponta
Bogdan Matei, 10.06.2015, 14:02
To
destroy institutions and principles in order to rescue one person is, in my
opinion, unacceptable in a democracy. What are the common citizens to
understand now? That anyone who is charged with criminal offences may be
prosecuted and tried, but a prime minister cannot, because he is backed by a
parliamentary majority? What are we to understand now? That there are two
Romanias, one for ordinary people and one for Mr. Ponta?
Victor Ponta has
no respect for the law and for the Romanians, the co-president of the National
Liberal Party, Alina Gorghiu, also said.
The head of
government however says that the solution to this crisis is for him to present
to prosecutors all the data they have requested, and that the Cabinet should be
allowed to do its job. Ponta also claims that the strong calls for his
resignation coming from President Iohannis are actually fuelled by the head of
state’s plans to bring the Liberals in power. Victor Ponta:
The
political battle is back on a stage that we all remember, the game of criminal
cases. And on Friday it was my turn. Why, when everything goes well, when
everybody praises Romania, must we go back several years and rehash the battle
of criminal accusations, to have Ponta out and Gorghiu in?
For the time
being, the PM cannot be prosecuted for conflict of interests, but prosecutors
may carry on the investigation of criminal offences such as forgery, tax
evasion and money laundering, which he presumably committed about ten years
ago, when he was a lawyer.
The new
political and judicial scandal in Bucharest has had its echoes in Western
capitals as well. The American Embassy in Bucharest says in a statement that
accusations against government officials should be investigated without
interference. The British diplomats in Bucharest also emphasized the need for
judicial institutions to be allowed to act with impartiality and full
independence, while their Dutch colleagues warn that the developments in
Parliament reveal problems related to the attitude regarding justice and
corruption in Romania.
