Romanian Chamber of Deputies to vote on Prime Minister’s immunity

Romania’s Prime Minister Victor Ponta will stand before the Parliament today, June 9, to see if he still has the majority’s political support. The Chamber of Deputies will vote on the anti-corruption prosecutors’ request to waive Ponta’s immunity and allow his prosecution in a corruption case. This is a first for Romania, which has seen a former Prime Minister investigated and jailed, but never an investigation on one still in office. The official debate in the Chamber starts at 10:00. The Chamber’s judicial committee rejected on June 8 the National Anticorruption Directorate - DNA’s request to prosecute Ponta, after brief hearings. However, it’s the vote today that counts for the final decision. Faced with criminal charges for conflict of interest and money laundering, as well as with a no-confidence motion from the opposition coming up, Ponta still relies on a comfortable majority in the Parliament. His corruption case, which broke last Friday, when he was first called to the DNA headquarters to hear the charges against him, started a harsh political battle. One the one hand, President Klaus Iohannis and the opposition have asked Ponta to resign. On the other hand, Ponta replied that only the Parliament could dismiss him. He and his supporters, including the Senate's president, former PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu, have called the case against Ponta no less than a coup d’état attempt. They alleged that justice was not independent and that the prosecutors merely wanted to help overthrow the Government, after doing so much good to the country through the recent fiscal and economic reforms. The corruption case against Ponta targets the money he received in 2007-2008 as an associate lawyer of Sova and Associates law firm coordinated by his friend Dan Sova, as well as Ponta’s decision to name Sova a minister in his cabinet in 2012. editor@romania-insider.com