Youth in frontline in Social Democrat choice of Ponta

Former Minister for the Government’s Relations with Parliament Victor Ponta, 37, has been elected the new president of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), in what is viewed as a move which gives continuity to the party’s old guard, but with a fresher face

March 2010 - From the Print Edition

Ponta defeated the failed Presidential candidate Mircea Geoana, who was running for re-election, by a comfortable margin, with 856 of the PSD delegates votes compared to 781 for the incumbent.
They fought head-to-head after the withdrawal of challengers ex-Foreign Minister Cristian Diaconescu, ex-Transport Minister Miron Mitrea and Constanta Mayor Radu Mazare, although two minority candidates remained in the race.
Former Prime Minister Adrian Nastase withdrew his candidacy three days before the PSD Congress on 20 February.
Although a CURS opinion poll rated Geoana shortly before the race as a winner with around 43 per cent of the votes, and Ponta with only three per cent, this view changed on election day. Ponta was backed by most of the old guard of the PSD - former party president Adrian Nastase, Mitrea, Mazare and party negotiator Viorel Hrebenciuc.
Geoana’s failure to win the Presidential election last December, even with the majority of parties and media in his support, triggered the call for a new leader.
Ponta has stated that if the PSD wins in the local elections and general elections in 2012, he will candidate to be President in 2014. “I know that we shall be again the most powerful enemy of the other parties,” he added, stressing that he wants to maintain the unity of the party and “a coherent and united transition” of power.

Who is Victor Ponta?

Born in Bucharest on 20 September 1972, lawyer and former prosecutor Victor Ponta joined Romanian politics ten years ago. As early as 2001, then-Prime Minister Adrian Nastase cherry-picked the young Ponta to be a secretary of state heading the Government’s Control Department for three years, overseeing the finances of state companies. In 2003 he became president of the Social Democratic Youth Wing and in 2008 was elected as Deputy for the mining region of Targu Jiu. Appointed as Minister for the Government’s Relationship with the Parliament at the beginning of 2009, he spent nine months in the job before resigning en masse with his PSD cabinet colleagues last September.
Ponta is married into one of the most senior families in centre-left politics - his wife is MEP Daciana Sarbu, who is the daughter of PSD ex-Minister of Agriculture Ilie Sarbu. A basketball player and rally-driver, Ponta supports the Bucharest football team owned by Gigi Becali, Steaua, and is a sucker for Italian food.