USR accuses Ponta of “a serious slip-up”. “It reminds us of the fascination he always had for authoritarian leaders and regimes”
USR criticizes the statements made by former Prime Minister Victor Ponta about the interim Minister of Defense, Radu Miruță, following explanations given by the government official about how the anti-aircraft defense in Ukraine deflects the trajectory of Russian drones.
“Most of the time, there are drones that are shot down, if you will, by the anti-aircraft defense in Ukraine, they are shot at, one of their flaps is modified, their aerodynamic structure is modified, they lose, perhaps, their GPS coordination, because there is jamming also from Ukraine, and they continue to fly on a different trajectory, either until they use up their fuel or until they hit something and fall”, said Minister Miruță at Digi24, in the sequences distributed by Victor Ponta.
On the images distributed by the former prime minister, on which the logo of the Gândul publication also appears, the message “Radu Miruță blames the Ukrainians for the arrival of Russian drones in Romania” is written, in the context in which the minister offers a technical explanation in those sequences and had said, in several previous interventions, that the responsibility for the incident in Galaţi, where a drone fell on an apartment block last week, belongs to Russia.
“STOP HIM SOMEHOW! Lock him in a cellar! Shoot him in the tongue! Anything, just stop saying stupid things non-stop! Miruta is more harmful than Putin's drones!”, wrote Victor Ponta, on Wednesday, on Facebook, in the description of the post in which he shared the clip.
USR reaction
USR reacted to the statements made by Victor Ponta, claiming that “demanding that a minister in office be “shot”, even in an allegedly metaphorical formulation, is a serious slip for any public figure and even more serious for someone who led the Government of Romania”.
“Mr. Ponta reminds us again of the fascination he has always had for authoritarian leaders and regimes. Perhaps that is precisely why he no longer realizes how revolting is the language he uses today in the public space. Romania is a democracy, and in a democracy political opponents are fought with arguments, not with calls to violence,” claims USR.
The party to which Radu Miruță belongs said that Victor Ponta's “entire attack” is “based on a fake news”.
“One that can be easily verified and dismantled by anyone interested in the truth, not propaganda. There is a fundamental difference between politics and manipulation: the truth. Romania needs leaders who build trust. Not politicians who try to stay relevant through invective, misinformation and personal attacks”, USR concluded.
