Former Prime Minister Victor Ponta, a former leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), made a critical review of the current PSD Government’s decisions and of the way PM Sorin Grindeanu and current PSD leader Liviu Dragnea handled the matter of the ordinances on justice.

He presented his conclusions during a talk show on local news station Romania TV, on Monday evening. The same evening, Grindeanu was invited in a talk show at the Antena 3 news station. Romania TV and Antena 3 are the main media supporters of the current PSD-ALDE governing coalition.

Victor Ponta thinks that Sorin Grindeanu and Liviu Dragnea have made a mistake when they put the whole responsibility of the ordinances on justice on the former justice minister Florin Iordache. He also says that a plane that has more than one pilot is likely to crash, referring to the relationship between Prime Minister Grindeanu and President Klaus Iohannis, and the one between Grindeanu and Dragnea.

The scandal of the controversial emergency ordinance that was supposed to change the Criminal Code has eroded the trust in the Grindeanu cabinet, which was invested in early-January, says the former PM.

“This operation they started in January, with the ordinances, seems as it was written by the others (PSD’s adversaries – e.n.). I was watching and couldn’t believe my eyes,” Ponta said at Romania TV, according to Hotnews.ro.

“I don’t think that the current Government can win any battle to convince people. But the Parliament can,” he added.

He thinks that PSD and the Government made three mistakes in the justice ordinances matter. The first one was putting the whole responsibility on justice minister Iordache. “The fact that they put it all on Iordache, saying that he did it alone, that they didn’t know, is a silly thing that neither the PSD voters nor I believe.”

The second mistake was not having a public debate on abuse of office and focusing instead on the bill for pardoning inmates, which produced a lot of emotion. The third mistake was the text of the ordinance, which didn’t solve the real problems related to abuse of office, Ponta thinks. “I also read the ordinance after it appeared in the press and I honestly say that I wondered what was in their heads as one couldn’t understand anything from it,” Ponta said. “How can you issue an emergency ordinance ans say it becomes effective in ten days? If you put this ten-day term, then it’s not urgent. If it’s not urgent, then leave it to the Parliament to decide on this. It has all been a mistake,” Ponta commented.

The former PM also said that he told current PM Grindeanu that he has a big problem, because a plane with more than one pilot is very likely to crash. He hinted that the three pilots currently fighting to take the controls were President Klaus Iohannis, Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu, and PSD leader Liviu Dragnea.

“No matter how good a relationship he has with Liviu Dragnea, a three-way cohabitation, a plane with three pilots, has all the chances to crash quickly. How to crash? Not with protests or with ordinances. The country’s engines are the economy, investments, EU funds, budget and budget revenues, the situation in the energy sector, healthcare, education, drugs. Nobody has been handling these problems in the past two months because they haven’t been able to, the poor folks,” Ponta concluded, according to Hotnews.ro.

The former Prime Minister apparently has invited all the former ministers in his cabinets to a meeting at a hotel in Brasov in March, according to Hotnews.ro. He explained that the meeting is supposed to mark one year since he launched the Black Sea Regional Project foundation.

However, this may also be an opportunity for Ponta to evaluate his chances of getting back to PSD’s helm. The relationship between Victor Ponta and Liviu Dragnea has been glacial in the past year, as the former PM was completely excluded from the circle of power in PSD. Ponta was president of the Social Democratic Party from February 2010 until July 2015, when he resigned because of the corruption cases in which he was investigated.

He was Prime Minister from May 2012 until November 2015, when he resigned after massive street protests after the Colectiv club tragedy in Bucharest. Ponta and some of his supporters hinted that the Colectiv episode may have been orchestrated by foreign interests to create a pretext for his dismissal and for the appointment of a technocrat Government.

PSD and its supporters, including the Romania TV and Antena 3 TV stations, have revived the idea of foreign interests looking to set their agenda in Romania in the context of the anti-corruption and anti-Government protests in Romania in the past month. PSD leader Liviu Dragnea said on several occasions that the protesters were manipulated and that foreign multinationals supported the protests, which were aimed at overturning the result of the December 11 parliamentary elections. PSD won the elections by a wide margin on a low turnout.

editor@romania-insider.com