Transport Minister Resigns Amid Controversial "Punks and Whores" Statement

Transport Minister Ioan Rus resigns on Friday after a hot public debate over a comment he did on Wednesday evening on a private television.

He said that children and wives of those who choose to work abroad become back at home "punks and whores".

"Romania has got 3 million nationals, let's say, of the active force, right now in the Western Europe.

"Perhaps they earn 1,500 euros (a month).

Transport Minister Ioan Rus resigns
over a controversial statement
he made on romanians working abroad.
Photo Credit: ziare.com

"I put it very directly. For those money, their children at home become punks and their wives whores.

"For 700 euro, half of them would return home," said Ioan Rus in an interview with Digi 24 TV.

The comment stirred up an uproar on social media and some opposition representatives asked for his resignation.

On Thursday, minister Rus apologised and said the words he had used were "an artistic generalization, a licence".

"I didn't mean to offend anybody's dignity whatsoever through my statements, I only wanted to draw attention on the high price thousands of Romanians do pay when choosing to leave to working abroad", said Mr. Rus.

Nevertheless, the pressure continued and on Friday the prime minister Victor Ponta announced on Facebook he accepted Transports minister's resignation.

The main task during his mandate was the negotiation of the so-called Transport General Master Plan with the Romania's parteners in the EU.

The Master Plan includes the infrastructure projects Romania needs or has to employ in order to integrate itself in the larger european development plans.

Ioan Rus is a member of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) since 1994. He had two mandates as Interior Minister (December 2000 - June 2003 and May - August 2012) and he became Transport Minister in June 2014, following the resignation of Dan Sova.

Romanian PM Victor Ponta under criminal prosecution

UPDATE 2: In a post on his Facebook account, consisted in four phrases each of them ended in an exclamation mark, PM Victor Ponta said that he met president Iohannis and he respects his standpoint, "but I've been appointed by the Parliament and only the Parliament could sack me!"

"I cannot accept that a DNA prosecutor is above Parliament, government and citizens! That would be a dictatorship and after 25 years from 1989 it would be a big mistake for all of us!", said Mr. Ponta on Facebook.

UPDATE 1: President Klaus Iohannis asked for PM resignation.

In a short declaration, Mr. Iohannis said that "the worse think could happen in Romania is a political crisis".

"A prime minister under investigation is an impossible situation for Romania", said president Iohannis.

The president's declaration has been made after a meeting with Mr. Ponta, at Cotroceni Presidential Palace.
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Anti-corruption prosecutors in Romania said in a statement that they put prime minister Victor Ponta under criminal prosecution for forgery, complicity in tax evasion, money laundering and conflict of interest.

The prosecutors claim that between 2007 and 2008, Victor Ponta cashed in 181,439 lei (cca 41,000 euros) from the law firm "Sova and Associates".

The money was meant to cover attorney services from Victor Ponta's law firm and it has been paid out in 17 installments, until the month Victor Ponta became prime minister.

PM Victor Ponta is a suspect in an

anti-corruption file from 2007-2008.

But the prosecutors said that the services was never fulfilled, and Victor Ponta and Dan Sova, a former ministry in Mr. Ponta's cabinets and associate in the law firm "Sova and Associates", tried to make up false evidence of their collaboration.

The prosecutors claim, too, that "Sova and Associates" law firm gave for free to Mr. Ponta a Mitsubishi Lancer car.

Mr. Sova is prosecuted too, and his case has been raised in Senate this week, in a controversial vote.

Mr. Ponta was questioned this morning at DNA's headquarter in Bucharest.

On his way out from the hearings, he said he is "a suspect in Dan Sova's case".

"I am suspect of conflict of interest too, since Dan Sova was member in my cabinets", said the prime minister Victor Ponta.

He didn't answer if he will resign, but he said that the political decisions "are taken in Parliament, not in the DNA headquarter".

DNA - in romanian: Departamentul National Anticoruptie - is a special department of the prosecutors meant to deal with high level corruption in administration.

President Iohannis Says He Is Dissapointed by "This Majority in Parliament"

President Klaus Iohannis said on Tuesday that the Parliament "continues to obstruct the justice".

In a post on his Facebook account, he said "it is harder and harder to work with this Parliament".

The reaction comes after the Parliament opposed to the request by the anti-corruption prosecutors who asked for the arrest of the coalition member senator and former minister Dan Sova.

This is the second time the Senate rejects the same request concernig SDP senator Sova. This time the request has been approved by 66 senators, but rejected by 72 senators.

SDP Senator Dan Sova.

Senator Dan Sova is under prosecution for abuse of office. But he cannot be arrested without the Senate's approval.

The conservative opposition condemned the vote in Parliament.

Before the vote in the Senate, the prime minister Victor Ponta said "it is not about the justice, but a political battle".

The former president Traian Basescu has said that SDP-dominated Parliament's vote was not fair.

"If we are talking about someone who knows certain things about the SDP president Victor Ponta, then we get this kind of result", Basescu has said.