Another plagiarism scandal has hit the Romanian Government. Shortly after a former Minister of Education was accused of having copied in his scientific paper, the head of the Government himself, prime Minister Victor Ponta (in picture), is at the center of a plagiarism scandal. International magazine Nature indicated that Ponta copied more than half of his 423-page thesis, without quoting the necessary sources in his 2003 paper.

The magazine quoted an anonymous whistle-blower, which was later named by the PM himself. "Everyone knows who used to call me 'dottore' and who is now this 'anonymous' source. Daniel Funeriu is the source,” said the Prime Minister, referring to the former Education Minister Funeriu. The PM also suggested that President Traian Basescu is behind these accusations. The relationship between the Romanian president and the PM have been tense since their quarrel over who will attend a high level EU meeting (we wrote about it here).

Both stories in Nature magazine and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung mention the documents presented by an anonymous source, but have not published the text areas that are allegedly copied. The Prime Minister said in a press conference on Monday evening (June 19 ) that he is willing to be checked by any institutions and that it was embarrassing to be accused of plagiarizing the very person who wrote the preface for his thesis.

Nature says substantial sections of text seem to be identical, or almost so, to material in monographs written in Romanian by law scholars Dumitru Diaconu and Vasile Creţu. They also feature direct Romanian translations of parts of an English-language publication by law scholar Ion Diaconu.

The story in Nature goes on: “The evidence of plagiarism is overwhelming,” says Marius Andruh, a chemist at the University of Bucharest and president of the Romanian council for the recognition of university diplomas. If the allegations are borne out, “a serious discussion is needed in Romania and abroad to prevent this in the future,” says Andruh.”

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which also wrote about the topic, compared Ponta to the former Hungarian president Pal Schmitt and the former German Defense Minister, Karl-Theodor Guttemberg, who both resigned when accused of plagiarism.

The story reminds of former Education Minister Ion Mang, who resigned in May, amid plagiarism accusations, in order to save the Government from the effects of the campaign against him.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: gov.ro)