What binds Victor Ponta to the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, the one who gave him the Serbian citizen and to whom Ponta was a counselor
Victor Ponta generated a controversy in the public space after Wednesday, in a moderate podcast by Robert Turcescu, said he has Serbian citizenship because he “helped with an extraordinary thing”, more precisely that in 2014 he decided to protect Belgrade from the flood and chose to be flooded Romanian villages. Victor Ponta's connections with Aleksandar Vucic are some profound ones, being named in 2016 Vucic's honorary counselor, the current president who at that time was prime minister. Also, in 2014, after the episode of floods Victor Ponta had at least 3 Vucic meetings, according to the data on the Romanian Government's website.
In January 2018, the Serbian tabloid Blic revealed exclusively that Victor Ponta received Serbian citizenship. Contacted at that time by Hotnews, Victor Ponta was talking about his ties with Vucic. “I am the honorary counselor of Mr. Vucic in 2016 and I received an honorary quality,” Ponta told Hotnews in January 2018.
In the article in which he announced to obtain Serbian citizenship by Ponta, Blic mentioned that Victor Ponta was present in the Belgrade Parliament in August 2016, when Aleksandar Vucic gave a speech. Ponta was then deputy, after in November 2015, after the tragedy from the Collective, he had resigned from the position of prime minister. On the occasion of the presence in the Belgrade Parliament, Ponta said that “Serbia has always been the best neighbor and friend of Romania,” and our country supports Serbia's accession to the EU.
The Flood Episode of 2014
In a podcast moderated by Robert Turcescu, Ponta-an independent candidate for the presidential elections, with the slogan “Romania in the first place”-he said he has Serbian citizenship because in 2014 he “helped with an extraordinary thing”. Specifically, he said that he gave “order over the Romanian structures to open the valley from the Iron Gates”, so that Belgrade would not be flooded. Asked why that disposition was needed by him, Ponta said: “because the Romanian side is flooded.”
“And he was flooded. But I talked to ISU (n.red.: Inspectorates for emergencies), I moved people, I gave damages quickly. You did not find anything, the press,” Ponta detailed.
According to the controversy generated in the public space, Ponta returned with details on Facebook, where he claims that no resident in the Riveran area of the Danube was in danger and no household was severely affected after the floods of 2014 when as a prime minister he decided to “order over the Romanian structures to open the Valea de Iron”.
“We have also saved thousands of human lives in the neighboring country and friend Serbia, as a good neighbor and a good Christian should do! The criminals who say we had to let people die so that we do not affect a few hectares of field have neither the heart nor mind!”, Victor Ponta said.
Three meetings with Vucic after the episode of floods
After the episode of the floods in the spring of 2014, you have exactly May, Victor Ponta had at least three meetings with Aleksandar Vucic, according to the data on the Romanian Government's website.
On July 17, 2014, Victor Ponta was together with the Serbian prime minister at the Romanian community on the Timoc Valley in Serbia. Like Gov.ro note then, it was the first time that two heads of government visits the community together.
On November 8, 2014, Prime Minister Ponta and the Serbian prime minister participated in the inauguration of the border point in the long in Timiș county. “Now we have many more friends, but I want to be the best friend in the EU. And Europe will not be whole until Serbia and the other countries in this region are not part of the EU,” Ponta said.
On December 16, 2014, Ponta went to Belgrade, where he had a base with Aleksandar Vucic.
Who is Vucic
Aleksandar Vucic runs Serbia since 2014, first as prime minister (2014-2017), then as president. He was accused of imposing authoritarian leadership and was noted with several Pro-Russia and Pro-China positions, while he criticized the EU and the US.
Currently, Vucic is facing the biggest challenge of the decade in which they are in power after hundreds of thousands of people have gone through the whole country to protest against it and the political class in power. Protests broke out after, on November 1, 2024, 15 people lost their lives and two others were seriously injured following the collapse of the Novi Sad train station. The tragedy was seen by society as a direct result of corruption.
Link to Sebastian Ghiță, the fugitive refugee in Belgrade
Ponta's connection with Serbia is Sebastian Ghiță, fled to this country in December 2016.
Asked in an interview for G4Media, on March 31, 2025, why Romania TV, Sebastian Ghiță's television, supports him in this election campaign, Ponta said that the reason is that “he wants” to make an audience “:” It is a win-win as long as they remain in the first place between the other television “.
He claimed that he warned Ghiță not to get involved in the elections. “My opinion I told in Belgrade is that any Romanian press mogul who wants to put presidents, he gets bad. It's a warning. See your media and you have to understand that in Romania the press owners do not put presidents. I hope he understood this in 2014,” Ponta said.
In interviews given in the last months of the campaign, Victor Ponta has been asked several times about the relationship with Sebastian Ghiță, former PSD deputy and businessman who fled the country in 2016, to escape arrest, being targeted by several criminal files. He received asylum in Serbia in 2019, but this country has definitely refused since August 2018 the request of the Romanian authorities for the extradition of the businessman.
In a dialogue at Europa FM, Victor Ponta admitted that he met Sebastian Ghiță recently, when he was photographed with Donald Trump Jr., he said he saw with the son of the US president, at Vucic's invitation.
“In Belgrade (no. Photographed with Trump JR), because he came to see with President Vucic. I have a special relationship with President Vucic, who told me:
Also in the interview with Europa FM, Ponta said about Sebastian Ghiță: “We have heard us lately. He was also in the entourage there (no. From the event with Trump Jr.), But I did not talk about Romania.”
In an interview for ProTV, Victor Ponta also spoke about the importance of the relationship that Romania has to have with the US. He saw last week, in Belgrade, with Donald Trump Jr. “In the context of the visit to Belgrade, what does Mr. Sebastian Ghiță do?”, Was Andrei Esca's question. “I don't know, but I call him out and ask him from you,” Ponta reacted.
“Oh, so you speak,” said Andreea Esca, and Ponta replied: “If I have to … I generally speak a little because I have many other more important things to do.”
