Former Romanian prime minister Victor Ponta has received Serbian citizenship on Thursday, January 11, according to Serbian newspaper Blic.

According to Blic, Ponta has said that Serbia has always been the best neighbor and friend of Romania, and that it should join the EU as soon as possible.

Victor Ponta told local Hotnews.ro that he has been the honorary counselor of Serbia's President Aleksandar Vučić since 2016, and has received an honorary quality.

Victor Ponta has served as prime minister of Romania between May 2012 and November 2015, when he resigned after big anti-Government street protests triggered by the fire at Colectiv Club, which killed 64 people.

Sebastian Ghita, a former MP and a close collaborator of Victor Ponta, is currently in Serbia, waiting to be extradited to Romania where he is being investigated in several criminal cases. He disappeared in December 2016 after breaking the terms of the judicial control, and was caught in Belgrade in mid-April 2017. About one month later, he was released from police arrest following a decision of the Supreme Court of Serbia.

Victor Ponta himself had some problems with the law, being sent to court in 2015 on charges of forgery, complicity to tax evasion, and money laundering.

Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com