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*{{ro icon}} [http://www.victorponta.ro/ Official site]
*{{ro icon}} [http://www.victorponta.ro/ Official site]
*{{ro icon}} [http://www.cdep.ro/pls/parlam/structura.mp?idm=237&cam=2&leg=2008 Profile at the Romanian Chamber of Deputies site]
*{{ro icon}} [http://www.cdep.ro/pls/parlam/structura.mp?idm=237&cam=2&leg=2008 Profile at the Romanian Chamber of Deputies site]
*{{ro icon}} [http://www.cariereonline.ro/articol/victor-ponta-ministru-la-31-de-ani Interview in ''Cariere'' magazine]


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{{PSDHeads}}

Revision as of 15:21, 3 May 2010

Victor Ponta
Leader of the Social Democratic Party
Assumed office
February 21, 2010
Preceded byMircea Geoană
Minister-Delegate for Relations with Parliament
In office
December 22, 2008 – October 1, 2009
Prime MinisterEmil Boc
Preceded byMihai Voicu
Succeeded bySorina-Luminiţa Plăcintă (interim)
Personal details
Bornhonorific-prefix
(1972-09-20) September 20, 1972 (age 51)
Bucharest, Romania
Diedhonorific-prefix
Resting placehonorific-prefix
Political partySocial Democratic Party
Spouse(s)Roxana Ponta (div. 2006)
Daciana Sârbu (2006-)
Childrentwo
Parent
  • honorific-prefix
Alma materUniversity of Bucharest
ProfessionLawyer

Victor-Viorel Ponta (born September 20, 1972) is a Romanian jurist and politician. Since February 21, 2010, he is the president of the Social Democratic Party (PSD).[1] He has been a member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies for Gorj County since 2004. In the Emil Boc cabinet, he was Minister-Delegate for Relations with Parliament from 2008 to 2009.

Ponta and his first wife Roxana (a high school sweetheart)[2] have one son; they divorced in 2006.[3] That October, in China, he quietly wed Daciana Sârbu,[4] a future Member of the European Parliament and the daughter of Ponta's Boc cabinet colleague Ilie Sârbu.[5] The couple's relationship had become serious in 2004, after Ponta's son was born;[3] they had a daughter in March 2008[4] and married in a Romanian Orthodox ceremony in the church in Bucharest's Grădina Icoanei that June.[3]

Biography

He was born in Bucharest, completing secondary studies in 1991 at the city's Ion Neculce High School. In 1995, he graduated from the University of Bucharest's Law faculty. In 2000, he received a master's degree in International Criminal Law from the University of Catania; he received a degree from the Carol I National Defence University in 2002, and in 2003 received a doctorate in Criminal Law from the University of Bucharest and a master's degree in Political Management from the Social Democratic Institute. He has written several books in his field, including one on the International Criminal Court, the subject of his doctoral thesis. Between 1996 and 1998, and since 2002, he has taught Criminal Law at the Romanian-American University. From 1995 to 1998, Ponta worked as a prosecutor handling cases at the Sector 1 courthouse. From 1998 to 2001, he was a prosecutor at the Supreme Court of Justice in the anti-corruption division, in particular dealing with economic and financial crimes. From 2000 to 2001, he coordinated the Bureau for Combating Money Laundering.[6]

From 2001 to 2004, Ponta held the rank of Secretary of State as head of the government's Control Department.[6] In 2006, a civil servant at the Ministry of Education (who was in an ongoing feud with Ponta) charged that Ponta, while holding this office, covered up corrupt activities undertaken by former minister Hildegard Puwak, who was cleared of wrongdoing in a report issued by Ponta.[7] Additionally, he helped uncover cases of fraudulent use of Phare funds.[8] In 2001 he also joined the supervisory council of the Authority for State Assets Recovery, and that year he was part of a special committee investigating penal infractions committed by members of the government. In March 2004, he became Minister-Delegate for Control of International Grant Programmes Implementation and for Monitoring the Application of the Acquis Communautaire. A PSD member by 2002, he was from July to November of that year head of the Interim National Council of the Social Democratic Youth (TSD). That October, he became a member of the PSD's national council, and joined its executive bureau the following month, when he also became president of the TSD, remaining as such for four years. In 2005, he became a vice president of Ecosy, while he has been a vice president of the PSD since December 2006. At the 2004 election, Ponta won a seat in the Chamber of Deputies, where he served as both secretary and vice president of its permanent bureau;[6] he was re-elected in 2008.[9] That December, he became a minister in the incoming Boc cabinet.[10]

Upon winning confirmation, Ponta pledged to reduce the number of emergency ordinances issued by the government and to assist Parliament in exercising control over the cabinet.[11] Among his activities was to help steer a new civil and penal code through Parliament.[12] Among the more controversial provisions in these codes that Ponta defended (both as minister and as head of the parliamentary committee drafting the legislation) were one presuming that any defensive act done at night at home would be considered legitimate self-defence;[13] and one banning therapeutic abortions after the 24th week of pregnancy, which received sharp criticism from several NGOs.[14] Ponta, nicknamed "Little Titulescu",[15] has been known to criticise both members of his own party, commenting that Sector 5 Mayor Marian Vanghelie (known for his gaffes) "is such a philosopher that not even I can understand him";[16] and of the PD-L, remarking, after the two parties had entered a governing coalition, that his Gorj County parliamentary colleagues are "parrots, liars and dimwits".[17] Together with his PSD colleagues, Ponta resigned from the cabinet on October 1, 2009, in protest at the dismissal of vice prime minister and Interior Minister Dan Nica.[18]

Ponta has won national championships in basketball (1989) and auto racing (2008). He was made a knight of the National Order for Faithful Service in 2002, and in 2004 received the Ordine della Stella della Solidarietà Italiana.[6]

On February 21, 2010 he was elected president of the Social Democratic Party.[1]

Notes

  1. ^ a b http://www.gandul.info/politica/victor-ponta-noul-sef-al-psd-garantat-nastase-si-tata-socru-5584933
  2. ^ Template:Ro icon Evelyn Badea, "'Micul Titulescu', divorţat" ("'Little Titulescu', Divorced"), Adevărul, 11 February 2006; accessed June 22, 2009
  3. ^ a b c Template:Ro icon "Victor Ponta şi Daciana Sârbu, nunta social-democrată a anului" ("Victor Ponta and Daciana Sârbu, Social Democratic Wedding of the Year"), Ziua, 21 June 2008; accessed June 22, 2009
  4. ^ a b "Daciana Sârbu şi Victor Ponta sunt părinţi" ("Daciana Sârbu and Victor Ponta Are Parents"), Ziua, 25 March 2009; accessed June 22, 2009
  5. ^ "Ei sunt cei 33 de europarlamentari aleşi de români" ("They Are the 33 MEPs Elected by Romanians"), Evenimentul Zilei, 9 June 2009; accessed June 22, 2009
  6. ^ a b c d Template:Ro icon Profile at the Romanian Government site; accessed June 22, 2009
  7. ^ Template:Ro icon George Lăcătuş, "Ponta, acuzat că a tăcut în cazul Puwak" ("Ponta, Accused of Silence in the Puwak Case"), Cotidianul, 26 November 2006; accessed June 22, 2009
  8. ^ Template:Ro icon "Echipa lui Victor Ponta a găsit două cazuri de utilizare frauduloasă a fondurilor Phare" ("Victor Ponta's Team Helps Uncover Two Cases of Fraudulent Use of Phare Funds"), Adevărul, 8 February 2003; accessed June 22, 2009
  9. ^ Template:Ro icon Election results, alegeri.tv; accessed June 22, 2009
  10. ^ Template:Ro icon "Guvern de regăţeni, cu 'moţ' ardelean" ("Old Kingdom Government, with a Few Transylvanians"), Adevărul, 19 December 2008; accessed June 22, 2009
  11. ^ Template:Ro icon "Comisiile au avizat nominalizarea lui Victor Ponta ca ministru pentru Relaţia cu Parlamentul" ("Committees Approve Victor Ponta's Nomination as Minister for Relations with Parliament"), Mediafax, 20 December 2008; accessed June 22, 2009
  12. ^ Template:Ro icon "Ponta: Codurile civil şi penal vor fi finalizate până la 15 mai" ("Ponta: Civil and Penal Codes to be Finalised by 15 May"), Mediafax, 22 April 2009; accessed June 22, 2009
  13. ^ Template:Ro icon "Victor Ponta: 'Orice act de apărare, noaptea, se prezumă legitimă apărare'" ("Victor Ponta: 'Any Act of Defence at Night Is Considered Legitimate Defence'"), Cotidianul, 25 March 2009; accessed June 22, 2009
  14. ^ Template:Ro icon Oana Botezatu, Geta Roman, "Avortul, după comisia Ponta" ("Abortion, According to the Ponta Commission"), Evenimentul Zilei, 7 May 2009; accessed June 22, 2009
  15. ^ Template:Ro icon "Micul Titulescu - singur acasă" ("Little Titulescu - Home Alone"), Evenimentul Zilei, 23 September 2005; accessed June 22, 2009
  16. ^ Template:Ro icon "Ponta: Vanghelie e atât de filosof încât nici eu nu pot să îl înţeleg" ("Ponta: Vanghelie Is Such a Philosopher That Not Even I Can Understand Him"), Mediafax, 2 May 2009; accessed June 22, 2009
  17. ^ Template:Ro icon "Ponta despre parlamentarii PDL de Gorj: "Papagali, mincinoşi şi proşti"" ("Ponta Regarding Gorj County PDL Parliamentarians: 'Parrots, Liars and Dimwits'"), Mediafax, 28 January 2009; accessed June 22, 2009
  18. ^ Template:Ro icon "Miniştrii PSD şi-au depus demisiile la cabinetul premierului Emil Boc" ("PSD Ministers Submit Their Resignations in the Office of Prime Minister Emil Boc"), Mediafax, 1 October 2009; accessed October 1, 2009

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Victor_Ponta&oldid=359860497"