Romanian PM suspends three high profile leaders from ruling party

The Social Democratic Party (PSD), Romania's largest political party, which is led by incumbent Prime Minister and presidential candidate Victor Ponta, has been shaken up by several scandals and power struggles in recent months. This determined Ponta to take action and to suspend from all executive positions in the party some of its high profile members, who have been at the core of these scandals. On Tuesday, October 21, PSD’s governing body decided to suspend Sebastian Ghita, Dan Sova and Marian Vanghelie from all positions they held in the party. Dan Sova was vice president and spokesman for PSD, Marian Vanghelie was vice-president and Sebastian Ghita was member of the national executive committee. “I 'auto-suspended' them,” said Victor Ponta in a press conference, saying that the party took this decision because of their involvement in various scandals which might affect the party’s image and his presidential campaign. Dan Sova, 41, is one of Ponta’s closest collaborators. The two were colleagues in law school and then Ponta worked for a brief period in Sova’s law firm. Ponta’s rise as party leader and Prime Minister also helped Sova go up in the party’s ranks and get a ministerial mandate in Ponta’s cabinet. Sova was minister for large projects and then transport minister but resigned from the Government in June this year. He is still a member of the Senate. Sova came under the spotlights after he was intercepted by Romanian prosecutors talking to another influential member of PSD, Viorel Hrebenciuc, about his intentions to become party leader after Ponta gets elected President. Hrebenciuc promised to help Sova and in exchange asked him to initiate a law project for the amnesty of political leaders convicted for influence peddling. The National Anticorruption Directorate prosecuted both Sova and Hrebenciuc for this, but the leaked transcripts of the conversation brought them trouble inside the party. Hrebenciuc, who is investigated in three cases, resigned from the Deputies Chamber, but remains a party member. This is where Sebastian Ghita comes in. He publicly said that both Sova and Hrebenciuc should be suspended from PSD for their plotting. Ghita has also been one of Ponta’s main supporters. He is one of PSD’s richest members, but also a media mogul, as he controls Romania TV news station and other media businesses. Sebastian Ghita, 35, is also probably one of the richest in Romania. According to his most recent wealth statement, which he submitted as a member of the Deputies Chamber in June this year, he had EUR 22 million in several bank accounts, one of them with UBS Switzerland, and some EUR 94 million personal loans to a former business associate. He also owns watches, jewelry and art objects worth some EUR 17 million. He made his fortune as founder and shareholder of IT distribution company Asesoft, which he formally sold when he entered politics. He is believed to be very well connected, both in politics and in the business world, as well as in intelligence structures. Which is what the third suspended PSD member, Marian Vanghelie, says.