Dismissals and resignations within the Social Democratic Party
Despite their domination of the political scene in Romania, the Social Democrats are still anxious about the upcoming presidential elections.
Bogdan Matei, 22.10.2014, 13:55
The Romanian government relies on the Social Democratic Party, which, joined by the Union of Ethnic Hungarians in Romania, the National Union for the Progress of Romania, and the Conservative Party, enjoys a comfortable majority in Parliament. It leads most of the county councils and has the largest number of mayors elected across the country. All it is missing now is the Presidency, the pearl in the crown for a semi-presidential system with a voter pool that still has a paternalistic mentality, according to which the head of state bears the guilt or the merit for everything that goes on in the country.
Faced with a divided centre-right opposition with low calibre candidates, Social Democrat leader, Prime Minister Victor Ponta, is the favourite in the presidential election next month, according to polls. The game, however, is not yet decided, as the left seems to make more and more mistakes, and seems to be on the verge of making some big mistake. In order to improve their image, in Tuesday’s emergency meeting, the Social Democrats decided to suspend three of their emblematic leaders from all the functions they held within the party. Here is SDP president Victor Ponta himself:
“All three are suspended from all the positions they held within the party, and in our first Executive Committee meeting we will debate whether their actions have caused damage or not in the election campaign. Whoever makes mistakes pays for them, and if they have problems, they have to deal with them, as everyone else focuses on what we have to do in governance, in management at the local level and in the election campaign.”
Colourful Bucharest sector mayor Marian Vanghelie, and Sebastian Ghita, a millionaire member of parliament, were sanctioned for heavy language used during exchanges lately. Also suspended was the party spokesperson himself, Senator Dan Sova, who was indicted Monday by anti-corruption prosecutors for influence peddling.
Deputy Viorel Hrebenciuc, former leader of the Social Democratic group in Parliament, is being investigated in the same case. He resigned from Parliament, after being accused by prosecutors of using his influence with Sova to persuade the latter to introduce a bill in parliament to grant amnesty and pardons for several cases of corruption, promising in exchange to help him get the chairmanship of the party. Hrebenciuc, one of the oldest and most influential members of the post-communist left, is also under investigation for influence peddling in the case of the retrocession of tens of thousands of hectares of forest, a case in which prosecutors claim the state incurred losses worth over 300 million Euros.
Prime Minister Ponta hailed his resignation, saying that the former MP had made this decision to protect the SDP and Parliament from attacks in the election campaign. Analysts believe that the party may resort to even further ritual sacrifices in order to increase their chances to grab the Presidency, which they haven’t held in 14 years.
