Romania PM won’t quit over plagiarism charge

Reuters/AFP/Bucharest

Ponta: Why should I resign? No way

Romania’s new Prime Minister Victor Ponta said yesterday that he would not resign over accusations of plagiarism, dismissing the charges as part of a political plot against him by the country’s president.British scientific journal Nature reported on Monday that it had seen documents showing more than half of Ponta’s 432-page thesis on the workings of the International Criminal Court had been copied from other sources.Similar accusations of plagiarism have forced several European politicians to step down in recent months, including Hungary’s president, a German defence minister who was tipped as a possible successor to Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ponta’s own nomination as Romanian education minister.Ponta denied the charges soon after they were published in Nature on Monday and yesterday sought to end speculation over his future.“Have I done something against Romania’s interests as prime minister? Why should I resign? No way,” Ponta told a news conference.Ponta’s leftist Social Liberal Union (USL) only came to power in May after the previous centre-right government, battered by unpopular austerity measures, lost a no-confidence vote.Any fresh uncertainty over the new government’s future could knock Romanian asset prices, already under pressure after the country failed to sell one-year debt this week and with the leu currency close to all time lows.“The pressure to resign will be big, if it’s proved,” said Guy Burrow, a partner with consultancy Candole in Bucharest. “These days, I don’t think they can ignore it – or it’s a lot more difficult than it used to be.”Ponta went into further detail about his thesis yesterday, and went on the political offensive against President Traian Basescu, who has close links to the now opposition centre-right Democrat-Liberal Party (PDL).“You know very well this is a pretext of a political war between President Basescu and I, a war each of us leads with their own weapons,” Ponta said.Officials in Basescu’s office declined to comment.Ponta said his thesis’ bibliography listed the papers he had consulted. He noted the foreword had been written by Ion Diaconu, one of the writers whose work he was accused of plagiarising.The prime minister said he was prepared to submit his work to education ministry commission checks, if needed.“If the commission tells me I wasn’t supposed to list the bibliography at the end but insert it as footnotes, of course I will give up my doctor’s title immediately. I am not mad about titles, I don’t care about this one.”Ponta’s ruling party did well in local polls in June and are the favourites to win a November parliamentary election. The USL has pledged to keep Romania’s 5bn-euro ($6.3bn) International Monetary Fund-led aid programme on track.He has criticised Basescu – who wielded influence on previous governments despite a largely ceremonial position – for pushing austerity measures.The two have since clashed over who will represent Romania at a European Council meeting this month.The uncertainty over Ponta’s government increased yesterday when the Supreme Court ruled that Culture Minister and Senator Mircea Diaconu could not stay in office because there was a conflict of interest with his continuing role as a director of a state theatre.Diaconu would “certainly” have to resign, Ponta said.A senator since 2008, Diaconu was appointed culture minister in Ponta’s centre-left cabinet in May following the collapse of Mihai Razvan Ungureanu’s centre-right government.He has been a fervent supporter of a government decision to hand control of the Romanian Cultural Institute (ICR) from the presidency to the Senate.The decision has sparked protests over the last few days by hundreds of Romanians who fear their national cultural body will lose its independence and risk becoming a political tool.Ponta has defended the move, saying the institute would be less politicised under senate control.The ICR, similar to the British Council or Germany’s Goethe Institute, has 17 offices abroad including in New York, Tel Aviv and Paris.Diaconu is not the first minister in the new government to fall from grace – in May education minister Ioan Mang was forced to step down after being accused of plagiarising swathes of foreign scientific research works.