Ponta Comeback Alarms Romania's Ruling Party

Romania's former prime minister, Victor Ponta, is returning to the front lines of the country's political scene after being acquitted of corruption charges at the beginning of May. His new faction, Pro Romania, has also started recruiting prominent Social Democrat MPs, much to the concern of the ruling party leadership.

Several MPs, including two ministers, last week resigned from the party and joined Ponta's new political faction.

Analyst say that by attracting a number of MPs from the ruling coalition, Ponta's comeback might pose serious problems for the ruling party, at a time when the opposition is collecting votes to submit an impeachment motion against Viorica Dancila's cabinet.

Ponta, 45, who was prime minister from 2012 to 2015, has been at odds with party boss Liviu Dragnea since a cabinet crisis in June 2017, when the Social Democrat leadership impeached its own PM, Sorin Grindeanu.

After Ponta supported Grindeanu, who had accused Dragnea of ruling the party with an iron fist, they were both excluded from the party.

Dragnea became head of the Social Democratic Party in 2015 after Ponta resigned, when anti-graft prosecutors started investigating him and his law firm associate, former Senator Dan Sova, for alleged bribery and forgery in a case involving energy transactions.  

In November 2015, Ponta resigned also as prime minister, following a wave of anti-corruption protests triggered by a fire that killed 65 during a concert in a rock club.

He was reelected as an MP on the Social Democrat Party's lists in December 2016.

Three months after being excluded from his old party, he established Pro Romania, together with the former vice-president of the Alliance of the Liberals and Democrats, ALDE, Daniel...