Former Romanian PM Victor Ponta’s party falls apart after vote on new Government

Former Romanian prime minister Victor Ponta announced on Monday that his PRO Romania party would exclude the eight MPs who voted for the new liberal Government led by Ludovic Orban. Among them Sorin Campeanu and Daniel Constantin, two of PRO Romania’s founders and vice presidents, both former ministers in Ponta’s cabinets. Ponta also launched a violent attack against former PM Mihai Tudose, also a member of his party, who he accused of treason and of negotiating with both PSD and PNL behind his back. Meanwhile, Tudose asked Ponta to resign from the party’s helm, accusing him of taking all the decisions without consulting his colleagues.

“The Orban Government has passed. PRO Romania hasn’t supported this Government. The few colleagues who voted today decided to go alongside PNL against the decision we took together, which is why today we split and go ahead without them,” Ponta wrote in a Facebook post.

He also said the new Government will do a lot of harm and compared it to the Emil Boc Government installed by former president Traian Basescu in December 2009. “We will go ahead on our path. The true battle will be in 2024, to get the country out of the crisis (like we did in 2012),” Ponta added.

Eight of PRO Romania’s 29 MPs were present on Monday at the vote for the Orban Government, according to G4media.ro. Their votes were decisive, as the new cabinet passed with 240 votes, just 7 more than the required majority of 233 votes.

Before the vote in the Parliament, Ponta also lashed at former prime minister Mihai Tudose in a Facebook post, accusing him of negotiating the support for the PNL Government.

“If you ask yourself who is the "negotiator" with PNL – it’s the same Mihai Tudose who negotiated with Claudiu Manda during the week to go back to PSD and Ludovic Orban over the weekend to vote with PNL! The one for whom we all worked to get to the European Parliament - and who lied to everyone that he would not go and that he was running just to help the list! The one for which I gave up my MEP mandate on the ProRomania list! It is good that at least we separate the waters / but it is my mistake that I let all the betrayals and bitterness pass! We go further - fewer but without traitors!” Ponta wrote.

Mihai Tudose replied to Ponta in a Facebook post on Tuesday asking him to leave the party’s helm.

“When all the “negotiations” conducted by Victor lately (absolutely all being done without the approval of a statutory forum) have failed, and you are very upset that not even the closest colleagues in the leadership of Pro Romania share your “strategies”, wouldn’t you want, Victor, that, instead of threatening with exclusions and changes of organization leaders, exclusions of founding members and people who made a decisive contribution to what the party is today, would’t you want, Victor, to resign? Thus, we will not disturb you anymore,” Tudose wrote.