Ministers accused of plagiarism. The scandals that shook the governments of Romania. How many of them resigned following the allegations

In the last 15 years, nine ministers from Romanian governments have been accused of plagiarism. There were also prime ministers targeted by such accusations: Nicolae Ciucă, Victor Ponta and Mihai Tudose. Of the ministers accused of plagiarism, only three resigned.

After Monday's revelations by journalist Emilia Șercan regarding the plagiarism in the doctoral thesis of the PSD Minister of Justice, Radu Marinescu, HotNews brings to attention the main plagiarism scandals that have rocked the governments of Romania.

The list of heavy names from Romanian governments accused of plagiarism was opened by Victor Ponta, who obtained in 2024 the annulment of the order by which the Ministry of Education withdrew his doctorate title in 2016, and by Mihai Tudose, who tried to renounce the title.

Nicolae Ciuca

Journalist Emilia Șercan revealed in an investigation published in PressOne in January 2022 that the Prime Minister of the PNL at the time Nicolae Ciucă plagiarized in the doctoral thesis he submitted in 2003 at the “Carol I” National Defense University.

According to it, the thesis includes at least 42 plagiarized pages out of a total of 138. The content of at least 19 pages was plagiarized from two other doctoral theses previously submitted at the “Carol I” National Defense University (UNAP), one of which was coordinated by the prime minister's supervisor himself. With a few exceptions, the detected plagiarized portions were copied from printed sources, which could not be detected with anti-plagiarism software, the journalist said.

The criminal case in which Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă was accused of copyright infringement in his doctoral thesis was closed by the General Prosecutor's Office on March 15, 2023.

Lucian Bode ​

Babeș-Bolyai University's ethics commission analyzed in 2023 the doctoral thesis of the PNL Minister of the Interior, Lucian Bode, and came to the conclusion that “the suspicions of plagiarism are confirmed in the vast majority”, and “the ethical deviations found are important enough to conclude that the thesis is deeply flawed”.

The UBB checks were triggered after the journalist Emilia Șercan wrote that the Minister of the Interior at the time had plagiarized at least 18.5% of his doctoral thesis.

In November 2022, the Ethics Commission of “Babeş-Bolyai” University (UBB) reported that Interior Minister Lucian Bode's doctoral thesis includes only “citation errors” and “some plagiarized fragments”. In a message posted on Facebook at the time, Lucian Bode “welcomed” the publication of the results of the UBB evaluation, claiming that at no time did he appropriate the ideas of others, nor did he give the impression that they belonged to him.

Sorin Cîmpeanu

On September 22, 2022, Sorin Cîmpeanu resigned from the position of Minister of Education, after for several days he defiantly and ironically responded to accusations of plagiarism. Sorin Cîmpeanu was accused of plagiarizing, in a specialized course, 92 pages from the work of two professors from the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine in Bucharest, with whom he signed, in 2000, as the fourth author, nine pages from a university course.

Journalist Emilia Șercan wrote in PressOne that Sorin Cîmpeanu plagiarized 13 chapters previously published under the signature of two other professors from the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine in Bucharest.

In reply, Sorin Cîmpeanu claimed that those who launched the accusations of plagiarism against him “are a kind of ignorant in the field of education” and that the practical work guide he signed “was made very professionally, respecting all the rules, in the interest of the students”. He also said that such accusations are launched by those who “want at any cost to block the Education laws”, whom he categorized as “pure illiterates”.

Florin Roman

In December 2021, Florin Roman from the PNL resigned from the position of Minister of Digitalization, after the Libertatea newspaper wrote that he had plagiarized his master's dissertation defended at the Faculty of Psychology of the Titu Maiorescu University in 2012.

Furthermore, he was accused of listing a bachelor's degree at Babes Bolyai University on his resume, although he did not attend the university's courses.

Florian Bodog

​Former PSD Minister of Health Florian Bodog was left in 2019, officially, without the title of doctor in Management after the decision of the National Council for the Attestation of University Titles, Diplomas and Certificates (CNATDCU).

The revelation about the former health minister's PhD thesis, entitled “Management and Marketing of Health Facilities”, was made by PressOne in 2017.

Emilia Șercan wrote then that Bodog, Minister of Health in office at that time, plagiarized 147 of the 232 pages of his doctoral thesis in Management, entitled “Management and marketing of health facilities” and defended in 2008 at the West University of Timișoara (UVT).

Liviu Pop

In 2018, journalist Emilia Șercan participated in the public meeting at the National College of Internal Affairs (CNAI) of the Police Academy, where Liviu Pop, senator and former PSD Minister of Education, presented his doctoral thesis. The journalist claimed before the commission that Pop had plagiarized in his work. In the end, the committee did not grant him the doctorate.

Gabriel Oprea

Former Interior Minister Gabriel Oprea was left without a doctorate in 2016. His doctoral thesis, “Preliminary Complaint Procedure”, was defended in 2000 at the Faculty of Law of the University of Bucharest, the coordinator being university professor Ion Neagu.

In July 2015, the National Ethics Council subordinated to the Ministry of Education decided in record time that the suspicions of plagiarism in the case of the doctoral thesis of Gabriel Oprea, then Deputy Prime Minister, are not confirmed. On the other hand, Marian Popescu, the president of the Ethics Commission of the University of Bucharest, analyzed Gabriel Oprea's doctoral thesis, saying that it is certainly a matter of plagiarism, dozens of pages being “copied in full”.

On July 26, 2016, the CNATDCU Expert Commission that analyzed Gabriel Oprea's doctoral thesis gave a verdict of plagiarism in his case. At the same time, on August 29, the National Council for Attestation of University Titles, Diplomas and Certificates rejected the appeal of the former deputy prime minister regarding the plagiarism verdict, with 31 votes for and 2 against. On September 2, 2016, the Minister of Education, Mircea Dumitru, signed the order to withdraw Gabriel Oprea's doctorate.

Victor Ponta

The most famous case of plagiarism in Romania is undoubtedly that of Victor Ponta. On August 1, 2016, the Minister of Education at that time, Mircea Dumitru, signed the order to withdraw the scientific title of Doctor of Law in the case of Victor Ponta. The order of the Minister of Education came as a result of the decision made by CNATDCU on July 27, 2016, which confirmed that Victor Ponta had plagiarized in his doctoral thesis.

Victor Ponta obtained the title of doctor of law at the University of Bucharest in July 2003, with the thesis “International Criminal Court”. Victor Ponta's scientific supervisor for this doctoral thesis was Adrian Năstase, who in 2003 was the Prime Minister of Romania. Victor Ponta was at that time secretary of state in the Năstase Government.

The plagiarism was revealed in 2012 by the journal Nature, which wrote that it had seen documents compiled by an anonymous source (“whistle-blower” in the original – Ed.) showing that more than half of Ponta's 432-page thesis consisted of duplicate texts”.

In 2024, former prime minister Victor Ponta obtained the annulment of the order by which the Ministry of Education withdrew his doctorate in 2016. The decision is final and was pronounced by the High Court of Cassation and Justice (ÎCCJ), based on a decision of the Constitutional Court from 2022. Ponta appealed to an extraordinary appeal.

Mihai Tudose

The former PSD Prime Minister Mihai Tudose made two requests to renounce the title of doctor in Military Sciences and Information that he was awarded in 2010 by the SRI Academy.

Initially, the Ethics Commission of the SRI Academy gave a verdict of plagiarism for Mihai Tudose's thesis and proposed the withdrawal of the doctorate. However, the decision of the Ethics Commission was revoked in 2017 by the Senate of the SRI Academy, which invoked another verdict, this time not to be plagiarized, pronounced after a few months by a commission of “external specialists”.

In 2015, when he was Minister of Economy in the Victor Ponta Government, Mihai Tudose was accused of plagiarism in his doctoral thesis, “Protection of critical infrastructure – dynamic strategic element in the security sector”, submitted at the Academy of the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI), in an investigation signed by journalist Sorin Semeniuc for the Romanian Center for Investigative Journalism (CRJI).

Two years later, in July 2017, shortly after he was appointed prime minister, Tudose was complained to the National Council for the Attestation of University Titles, Diplomas and Certificates (CNATDCU) for the plagiarism exposed publicly in 2015.

Peter Drum

In 2015, Petre Tobă, Minister of Internal Affairs at the time, was accused of “massive” plagiarism in his doctoral thesis, in a case documented by PressOne.

Petre Tobă, former head of the Romanian Police, attended doctoral courses at the Department of Military Strategy and Security, Department of Joint Operations, Strategic and Security Studies of the “Carol I” National Defense University. Journalist Emilia Șercan wrote that more than 250 of the total 390 pages of the thesis with which he obtained the title of doctor in Military and Information Sciences were copied verbatim from specialized papers or reports posted on the Internet, without using quotation marks and without respecting the national and international norms of citation in scientific works.

Mihai Stanisoara

Also in 2015, Mihai Stănișoara, former PDL Minister of Defense, was accused of plagiarism in his doctoral thesis, in the context of the PressOne investigations regarding the SRI Academy. Ethics commissions found plagiarism in 2018, without political consequences.

John Mang

In 2012, Ioan Mang, Minister of Education, was accused of plagiarism in several scientific articles.

Ioan Mang resigned just a few days after taking office, following public pressure. Later, the National Ethics Council found partial plagiarism and applied academic sanctions.