Romania’s Social Democratic Party wants to expel former party leader and Senate head Mircea Geoana

The Integrity Committee of the Romanian Social Democratic Party (PSD) on Sunday voted for expelling its former leader Mircea Geoana from the party, without publicly announcing the actual reasons for this decision. Mircea Geoana used to run the Social Democratic Party, but was replaced by younger Victor Ponta in 2010. Ponta has publicly said the party is looking at excluding its former leader for not obeying the party's directives. This decision against Geoana, who is also the president of the Senate in Romania’s Parliament, was taken with 43 votes “in favour”, five “against” and two blank votes. However, the decision is not yet final. The proposal will be forwarded to the Social-Democrats’ National Executive Council, which is the party’s higher executive body and which will adopt a final decision. The vote for Mircea Geoana’s expulsion from the party was held in his absence. According to the Romanian media, the vote was held at 14:00 hours, while the Senate’s president was invited to attend the meeting at 14:15 hours. The head of the Integrity Commission, Dan Sova, said that the meeting started without him because Mircea Geoana didn’t confirm his attendance. Moreover, when Dan Sova was asked what Geoana was accused of, he said it was “an internal matter”. Mircea Geoana became a PSD member in 2001, and was named the party’s president in 2005. In December 2008 he was elected President of the Senate, and in 2009 he run for Presidency but lost the position to the current President Traian Basescu. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com (photo source: Mirceageoana.ro)