The plagiarism game: accusations fly about on the Romanian political stage

The political scene in Romania has been in turmoil over the past few weeks, with plagiarism accusations involving various members of the political elite.

In an interview for El Pais last week, prime-minister Victor Ponta said he would take responsibility and resign in case there is proof that he plagiarized.

On Friday, the National Council for the Acknowledgement of Titles, Diplomas and University Certificates decided that the prime-minister did indeed plagiarize in his PhD thesis, and proposed that his title as a doctor be withdrawn. The decision of the council was made through the vote of 13 members present, out of 21.

The president of the institution, Marius Andruh, said the 307-page work was analyzed page by page and it was found that 85 of these were copied without indication of the source.

However, Ponta said, after the decision was pronounced, that he would not resign or give up the title, since this was a “mafia-like execution” from the opposing Democrat Liberal Party.

“I have worked a great deal for the PhD thesis and I am very proud of it. This is a political mess,” said Ponta on the TV.

Ponta was not the only Romanian official who was the subject of plagiarism accusations recently.

President Traian Basescu was also the target of such allegations. The interim minister of education Liviu Pop said that the president’s master’s degree obtained in Norway should be verified as well.

In reply, the president said he never pursued a master’s degree. “I am not a doctor, or dottore. The only thing mentioned in my CV in the studies category is the graduation from the Mircea cel Batran Institute, the commercial section. And also that in 1995, I graduated the advanced classes at the Norwegian Academy as scholar of the Norwegian state.”

Basescu also said: “The information that there is a master’s degree in my CV is a lie. I underwent classes, and here is how: the Norwegian embassy announced the opening of a scholarship contest at the Norwegian embassy. I was one of the hundreds who participated and my file was selected. Those were classes for middle management. No one granted me a master’s degree and I did not write such a thing in my resume, and even less so, a diploma of doctor or dottore in Catania. The studies did not finalize with any work of master’s or PhD degree,” said Basescu.

Before investing Ecaterina Andronescu as minister of education, the president asked her to give a public statement that she did not plagiarize and is not incompatible with her future position.

Also recently, the vice-president of the Democrat-Liberal Party, Andreea Paul, who has a PhD in economy, was also accused of having plagiarized her PhD thesis.

She also rejected the accusations, saying that she wrote her PhD by herself after 7 years of research and adding that the very next day she would submit at the Commission of Ethics of the Academy of Economic Studies a request for the analysis of her thesis.

The international press caught wind of the dispute. The Economist writes in an article entitled Ponta At War, that “Traian Basescu, the president, and Victor Ponta, the prime minister, are attacking each other mercilessly.”

“How is this crisis affecting Romania in the meantime? The Leu, Romania’s currency, fell very close to an all-time low against the euro. The political infighting could also influence Romania’s chances to become a member of the Schengen agreement this year. Romania’s top politicians seem to have already forgotten why thousands of people protested in freezing temperatures at the beginning of this year,” says the publication.

Otilia Haraga

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