The head of the Romanian government calls on former advisor Victor Ponta to withdraw his candidacy from the presidential elections
Kyiv • UNN
Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu called on Victor Ponta to withdraw his candidacy after the latter's admission that he was ready to flood Romanian villages to avoid flooding in Serbia. Ponta, in response, called on Ciolacu to resign.
Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu on Thursday called on Victor Ponta to withdraw from the presidential race after the latter said he ordered the flooding of villages in Romania in 2014.
UNN reports with reference to Digi24 and Euractiv.
Details
Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu has called on his former honorary advisor, Victor Ponta, to drop out of the upcoming May presidential elections following controversial comments.
Victor Ponta admitted in the podcast "Hai, live! cu Turcescu și Andronic", which aired on Wednesday, April 9, that in 2014, when he was Prime Minister of Romania and Serbia was hit by the worst floods in its history, he preferred that Romanian villages in the Danube Gorge be flooded to prevent the Serbian capital from being flooded.
According to him, the then Prime Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, granted him Serbian citizenship as a sign of gratitude.
The head of the Romanian government, Ciolacu, sharply criticized Ponta, saying that the primary duty of the Prime Minister of Romania is to protect the citizens and interests of the country.
In turn, Ponta issued a response and asked the Prime Minister to leave the Victoria Palace (the government of Romania has been located in the palace since 1990 - ed.).
I believe that Mr. Ciolacu should urgently resign from the post of Prime Minister - otherwise I will fire him as soon as I become president!
According to the ex-advisor, the Prime Minister "destroyed Romania economically, deceived the military, pensioners and entrepreneurs, plunged the country into debt of 100 billion euros, canceled the legal elections in November."
Ponta also believes that the current head of government led the SDP (Partidul Social Democrat Român - Social Democratic Pole of Romania) to the lowest result in the elections; "ridiculed Romania's relations with the United States and lost European funds .. due to incompetence and corruption."
Victor Ponta, who is now running as an independent candidate under the slogan "Romania First" and is in second place in the polls, writes Euractiv.
Let's remind
Victor Ponta said that he will stop the export of Ukrainian grain through Romanian ports to protect local farmers. He also plans to increase defense spending and support Moldova in case of aggression.
The Central Election Bureau of Romania refused to register the candidacy of far-right politician Călin Georgescu in the May elections. The decision was adopted by 10 votes against four and can be appealed to the Constitutional Court.
