Nature magazine: Romanian PM Victor Ponta accused of plagiarism. FAZ compares Ponta to Hungarian ex-president Pall Schmitt and former German Defense minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttemberg

Luni, 18 iunie 2012, 21:43 English | Top News

Nature magazine reports that Romanian prime minister Victor Ponta is accused of plagiarism for his PhD thesis in law, which was published in 2003. "Nature has seen documents compiled by an anonymous whistle-blower indicating that more than half of Ponta’s 432-page, Romanian-language thesis on the functioning of the International Criminal Court consists of duplicated text", Nature writes. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung also published an article on the alleged act of plagiarism by the head of the Romanian Government.

The German newspaper compares Ponta to former Hungarian President Pall Schmitt and former German Defense minister Karl-Theodor Guttemberg, who resigned following charges of plagiarism.

PM Victor Ponta could not be contacted by HotNews.ro until late on Monday to comment on the allegations.

Nature magazine writes that Ponta is accused of copying large sections of previous publications without properly quoting the source. It quotes political insiders who say that should the accusations be substantiated, they might fuel public pressure for Ponta to resign.

And the magazine notes the charges rise question marks regarding the Romanian government's capacity to fight corruption within the higher education system.