Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu is facing calls from top politicians to resign and quit his bid to become president after it emerged he apparently lied about his connections to a fraudulent real estate company.
G4Media.ro on Monday published a flight document showing that Mr. Ciolacu, his Transportation Minister Grindeanu and their children together with a Nordis real estate boss, Laura Vicol, flew in 2022 on a private jet chartered from the Tiriac Air company, something he had vehemently denied.
Nordis is under investigation for reselling upmarket property several times and potentially defrauding at least 750 people.
Mr. Ciolacu said he had no connection to Nordis and Monday’s revelation exposes his apparent lies.
G4Media.ro cited political and business sources and flight documents showing that he flew a Tiriac Air flight chartered by Nordis to Nice , at the end of May 2022, to see the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Monaco.
Mr. Ciolacu is the frontrunner in the Nov. 24 elections which will likely to go to a runoff on Dec. 8. He hasn’t commented on the latest developments.
Three contenders in the race called on him to quit saying he lacked the honor needed to become president. Nationalist George Simion, was the only top runner who didn’t criticize the prime minister after the revelation.
Liberal Party leader Nicolae Ciucă, who’s running for president called on the prime minister to resign and quit politics, accusing him of multiple lies.
“The Romanian state cannot be headed by a man without honor and without the necessary responsibility at the highest level. Marcel Ciolacu lied several times knowingly. He lied to all our faces. The truth is that he traveled to Nice and Paris with the Nordis…group, on their money, obtained embezzling Romanians,” Ciucă wrote on Facebook.
Former NATO deputy chief, Mircea Geoana, said “Marcel Ciolacu no longer has the political and legal right to be President of Romania…He shamelessly lied that he had nothing to do with this group of thugs and today we see irrefutable evidence that he benefited from the money of fraud victims. I ask Marcel Ciolacu to resign as Prime Minister and party president and I ask the state institutions to take note,” Geoana said in a post on his Facebook page.
Elena Lasconi, who’s one of the top presidential hopedfuls said: “Marcel Ciolacu must disappear from public life, not pave his way to Cotroceni (presidential palace) maneuvering the hands of the system.”
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