Victor Ponta explained how the events unfolded that made him accuse Oana Țoiu of blocking his daughter's repatriation

Former Prime Minister Victor Ponta claims that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Oana Țoiu, contacted the Romanian consul in Dubai before his daughter got on the bus with the other minors that was going to take them from Dubai to Oman, “saying that this represents “an image vulnerability”, so that “Irina was the only child abandoned in Dubai”.

Victor Ponta's ex-wife, Daciana Sârbu, confirmed their daughter's return to the country on Friday evening. A lawyer and the party led by Cristian Popescu Piedone submitted complaints to the DNA regarding the way in which the repatriation of the teenager was managed.

Commenting on the situation on Saturday in a Facebook post, Victor Ponta said that Irina Ponta was in the United Arab Emirates “to attend an event to which she had been invited by an American university.” The former prime minister says that after the outbreak of the war between the US-Israel and Iran, he announced to the Romanian embassy and consulate in the UAE that his daughter “is there unaccompanied and that she wants to come home as soon as this possibility exists.”

“Wednesday afternoon, we were contacted by a representative of the Romanian Consulate and informed of the existence of an organized flight. Irina was supposed to be the next day, Thursday, at 11 a.m., at the Dubai headquarters of the consulate, going to leave by bus, together with other minor children, to Oman – from where she was going to fly to Romania. I did not intervene in any way for her to be on this priority list,” declared Victor Ponta.

Ponta claims that “Irina met all the conditions imposed even by the MAE”

Victor Ponta claims that he did not know the composition of the MAE list, as well as that his daughter “meets all the criteria provided by GD 1443/2004 regarding the methodology for the repatriation of unaccompanied Romanian children”. He stated that Irina was taken to Dubai in a university car.

“It is obvious that it was not Irina who decided to leave Abu Dhabi for Dubai and that she would never have come to the consulate if she had not been called. Before Irina got on the bus, along with the other minors, the Romanian consul was called directly by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Oana Țoiu, who told her, imperatively, not to let Irina go to Oman, stating that this represents “an image vulnerability”, added the former prime minister.

He claims that “Irina met all the conditions imposed by the MAE: minor, unaccompanied, studying”.

“There were seats available on the plane at that time, as it turned out later. I return with the clarification that she was called and that we did not pressure her to be in the place of other children. Even if there were no seats available on the plane (which turned out not to be the case), it was the legal obligation of the Romanian authorities to transport her at least to Oman – where the airport was functional and where we could find an airline with which she could fly to Europe,” Victor Ponta said.

“Following the illegal and abusive intervention of Minister Țoiu, Irina was the only child in the group abandoned in Dubai – with no accommodation and no other confirmed flight,” continued Ponta.

Victor Ponta accuses USR of a “false and denigrating campaign launched against a minor”

Ponta said that USR Minister of Foreign Affairs, Oana Țoiu, acted in a “disgusting and dishonorable way for a high-ranking Romanian official who had the legal duty to assist minors, not to abandon them in bad faith in a conflict zone.”

“The lying and denigrating campaign launched against a minor by the USR and its henchmen only tried to exonerate Mrs. Minister Țoiu from responsibility for the illegal and immoral activity carried out. The fact that an entire political party in the Government has lies in its communication score against my child is a serious alarm signal as it is the first time that a family and a child are involved in the political struggle”, Victor Ponta also stated.

Explanations provided by the MAE

Asked by reporters, on Saturday, in a press conference, if it is possible that Irina Ponta's name was deleted from the list of people who were to be repatriated, the spokesman of the MAE, Andrei Țărnea, ruled out such a scenario.

“It is a criminal charge. What you are doing is a criminal charge. The modification of some data in an official system of the Romanian state falls under the Criminal Code. I will not answer this matter. No, it is not possible. And if it were to happen, it is a criminal act. I assure you that such a thing did not happen”, replied Țărnea, according to News.ro.

In a post from Friday evening, in which the Ponta family was not explicitly mentioned, Minister Oana Țoiu stated that on the channels of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “the request for assistance of the parents for the unaccompanied minor, nor the self-notification in the travel application regarding the presence in that space, could not be identified”.

“We have no reports indicating, anywhere in the world, that a minor was dropped from the transfers or flights organized by us or assisted by the consular teams (The information that a minor was dropped from the bus on the road or from the plane at the airport is false information),” said the head of Romanian diplomacy.

She said she did not request that any previous allocation decision be changed and did not ask questions “involving passengers' first and last names or their parents' first and last names.”

“The consul was the one who mentioned that, in addition to the official information until then, he also has the special case of an unaccompanied minor. My answer was that, in any change he would make to the composition of the already established group or in any evacuation plan presented to anyone, he should first ensure that the others from the vulnerable categories with a degree of risk enrolled in consular care through formal channels have access to the same information and equal treatment”, added Oana Țoiu.

“Also, it must be ensured that the established rules and decisions previously communicated in the official frameworks are respected,” continued the minister.