Romania’s Prime Minister Victor Ponta will keep his political immunity and dodge the corruption investigation that prosecutors have started on him.

The Chamber of Deputies rejected on Tuesday, June 9, the National Anticorruption Directorate –DNA’s request to waive Ponta’s immunity and green-light a corruption investigation on him.

Almost two-thirds of the deputies who were present to the voting (231) voted for the motion to reject DNA’s request and inly 120 voted for, showing that Ponta still has a strong support in Romania’s Parliament, despite the accusations against him.

DNA accused Ponta of conflict of interest for naming his friend Dan Sova minister in his cabinet in 2012, as Ponta worked with Sova’s law firm in 2007-2008.

The prosecutors are also investigating Ponta for forgery, tax evasion and money laundering for his contracts with Sova’s law firm, according to DNA. The investigation related to these charges can move on, as Ponta was neither a member of the Chamber of Deputies nor a minister when he worked with Sova.

Dan Sova himself is investigated for some contracts his firm illegally got from state-owned electricity producers. The Senate recently rejected DNA’s request to waive Sova’s immunity and allow his arrest. The prosecutors have placed Sova under judicial control, which means he has to go to the police every week and can’t meet the other people involved in his case.

DNA’s case against Prime Minister Victor Ponta stirred a political storm in Romania, as the news broke the same day when the Opposition filed a no-confidence motion against Ponta’s cabinet, on Friday, June 5.

Ponta and his allies rushed to say that the corruption case was fabricated and that it was part of a wider movement to overthrow his Government. Former liberal PM Calin Popescu Tariceanu, who’s now president of the Senate and one of Ponta’s strongest supporters, even said that this was a coup d’état.

Ponta himself hinted that with the care against him the prosecutors infringed the Government’s and Parliament’s powers, and urged his fellow MPs to vote against DNA’s request in order to preserve the Parliament’s authority.

The Opposition accused Ponta of cowardice and said that by rejecting the prosecutors’ request to investigate Ponta, the Parliament blocked the justice process. The liberals also accused Ponta’s Social Democratic Party of trying to limit DNA’s powers and put a stop to its anti-corruption campaign in Romania which has already sent some former ministers and members of the Parliament behind bars and many others to court.

President Klaus Iohannis reacted after the Chamber’s vote saying on Facebook that the Parliament shouldn’t obstruct the justice process. “I regret that the Parliament has turned into a shield for Victor Ponta,” he wrote, adding that it was irresponsible for the MPs to destroy the Parliament’s image and dent Romania’s image abroad just to save one person. He asked again for Ponta’s resignation.

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editor@romania-insider.com