Ex-PM Ponta: We are ready to fight Liviu Dragnea and PSD

Leader of Pro Romania party, Victor Ponta, on Sunday told a press conference that PSD (Social Democratic Party, part of the ruling coalition) leader Liviu Dragnea is afraid of Pro Romania, adding that Dragnea is "frightened and hysterical and he fears he will lost his freedom because of the money he stole ".

"We are quite ready to fight. The fact that we dragged Dragnea out of his hiding and that he said he will take care of us does not scare us at all, and we also don't complain; on the contrary, we are glad because this is a truth that people have began to know and feel: the fact that Dragnea is afraid of Pro Romania, that we are the ones who can really be an alternative to Liviu Dragnea and his gang, that many people like us voted for the PSD in 2012. Dragnea practically stole our votes and used them in his own and his gang's interest. (...) Mr. Dragnea's hysteria crises have two explanations, from our point of view, and we will insist on these two all the time, we'll push him where it hurts him the more," Ponta said.

He said that, if in the European Parliament elections of May the PSD does not repeat the score of 46% of the votes obtained in December 2016, then the part will no longer has the legitimacy of "ruling Romania".

"First of all, in December 2016, the PSD obtained 46 percent of the votes, in the context, of course, in which, in sociological and political terms, it was proved that PSD's voters pool accounts for 30 per cent of the votes no matter who its leader is, no matter the composition of the team, and then, depending on the leader, it can win more or less, and I want to see if the PSD, headed by Liviu Dragnea, will take 46 percent at the European Parliament, because he says it will. We say that many people voted for Victor Ponta, for Mihai Tudose, for Gabriela Firea, for Adrian Tutuianu, for Marian Neacsu, for many people whom Dragnea stabbed in the back, and I think May 26 will be a moment when we will all see how much legitimacy Dragnea still has to rule over Romania. If he didn't win 46 percent, it means that those votes weren't his in the first place and the fact that he makes all the decisions alone and and imposes things will be once again denied by the people," Victor Ponta argued.

The Pro Romania leader also said that Dragnea has a personal problem, which affects the entire society, with his criminal file that reached the appeal stage with the High Court.

"The second thing that causes Liviu Dragnea to be hysteric is that (...) in March he will be heard by the High Court in the appeal that he has pending there (...) with the sentence to be given in May. And I don't believe in Dragnea's stories that he has arranged things with the panel and he will be acquitted, for I went through that already, I have my own experience. I am convinced that the judges at the High Court, the five judges, if they have evidence, and it seems like they do have, will condemn him. If they don't have evidence, of course that they will acquit him.The problem is that this personal problem of Dragnea affects our entire society. There are two questions: when he will issue the ordinance and will Mrs Dancila sign it, for it seems like she doesn't want to go down in history as the one who saved Dragnea and the other prisoners from prisons and, the second one, what happens to PSD if it has a leader who leads from prison. So this is why his political nightmare is Pro Romania, his personal nightmare is the noose tightening around his neck things and we are ready and determined to fight against Dragnea until its end, which will surely come sooner or later," said Ponta.