PSD President Marcel Ciolacu called on Victor Ponta to withdraw from the presidential election race following statements made the night before on a podcast in which he said that in 2014 he decided to protect Belgrade from floods and chose to flood Romanian villages.
In a podcast moderated by Robert Turcescu, Victor Ponta said he has Serbian citizenship because in 2014 he “helped them with something extraordinary.” He claims that at that time he gave “an order to the Romanian structures to open the valley at the Iron Gates” so that Belgrade would not flood. Asked why that order was needed, Ponta said: “Because the Romanian side was flooding. And it flooded.”
Marcel Ciolacu reproaches Ponta for hiding the decision from Romanian citizens and for not putting his country’s interests first. “When you are prime minister, there are many moments when you are forced to make difficult decisions. But they should never be hidden from your own citizens. To calmly admit – after years! – that you agreed, as prime minister of Romania, to flood Romanian villages in order to save foreign cities and to boast that, as a reward, you received the citizenship of another state, it is clear that the game of sovereignty no longer holds!” Ciolacu wrote on Facebook.
The PSD president also emphasizes that through these revelations Ponta has demonstrated that he is not a sovereignist as he claims. “Whatever excuse you invoke, every citizen of this country expects a dignitary – be he president, prime minister or anything else, to defend his own country and his own citizens! Under no circumstances will anyone believe you are a sovereignist and that you are dying for your people and country!”, Ciolacu says.
Therefore, Ciolacu asks Ponta to withdraw from the presidential elections and draws his attention to the fact that otherwise he may contribute to Nicușor Dan becoming president.
“Victor, at least make a wise decision now! Withdraw from the race! No Socialist wants Nicușor Dan as president! At least redeem yourself at the twelfth hour for the huge mistake you made then! At least put Romania, truly, first now”, concludes Ciolacu.
This is the second reaction of Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu to Victor Ponta’s statements about the order given at the time of the 2014 floods, after, two hours ago, he stated that when you are prime minister “you sometimes make decisions that are harder to explain”.
Nicușor Dan asks Ciolacu to declassify the decisions taken by former Prime Minister Ponta during the 2014 floods
On the other hand, Ponta’s foe in the presidential race, Nicusor Dan, Bucharest mayor, asked PM Ciolacu to declassify the decisions taken by Ponta as PM in the 2014 floods issue.
“Victor Ponta told how, in 2014, when he was prime minister, he chose to flood Romanian villages to prevent the Danube from overflowing into Belgrade. It is hallucinatory, especially considering his so-called ‘sovereign’ campaign under the slogan ‘Romania first!’” candidate Nicușor Dan wrote on Thursday in a Facebook message, demanding the declassification of documents related to the 2014 floods, when Victor Ponta was prime minister.
“I ask Marcel Ciolacu to publish and declassify all the documents that underlie the decisions made by Prime Minister Victor Ponta at the time of the 2014 floods. Romanians have the right to know, transparently, what Victor Ponta’s decision to flood Romanian villages on the banks of the Danube was based on,” NicușoDan added.