PM Ponta under inquiry: The Chamber of Deputies rejects the prosecutors' request

Chamber of Deputies during the vote
for lifting the PM's immunity, June 2015.
Photo: Video Capture.

The Chamber of Deputies voted on Tuesday over the Anti-corruption Agency's request for criminal prosecution of prime minister Victor Ponta.

Mr. Ponta is a member of the Chamber of Deputies. He has been accused of conflict of interest, but in order to start the inquiry, the prosecutors need the Chamber of Deputies's approval.

231 deputies opposed the prosecutors's request, while 120 deputies favored the lifting of Mr. Ponta's immunity.

Before the vote, Victor Ponta said that the MPs should not accept the situation in which a prosecutor could change a prime minister.

An opposition leader, Ludovic Orban, from conservative-liberal party - PNL, said that the rejection of prosecutors's request means a worse image of the Parliament and of the country.

But Mr. Ponta is already under a criminal prosecution for forgery, complicity in tax evasion and money laundering, allegedly commited between 2007 and 2008, when he was an attorney.

Prosecutors say that after Mr. Ponta became prime minister, he appointed a former business partner of his firm law as a member of his cabinet . This is why the prosecutors suspect that Mr. Ponta is in conflict of interest as prime minister.

After the prosecutor's move, Mr. Ponta came under pressure to resign, but he refused.