Premium
The chairman of the Pro Romania party, Victor Ponta, stated on Tuesday, in northeastern Iasi, that elections are not the priority of Romanians at this time, but the risks to their health represented by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He believes the current government is intentionally refusing to increase the testing capacity in the public system, discouraging people to test themselves, which made Romania be at the top of the rankings of persons confirmed positive over tests.
"I am absolutely convinced the priority of Romanians at this time are not elections. If I were Prime Minister today [e.n. - Victor Ponta served as Prime Minister between 2012-2015], if Iurie [Iurie Leanca, former PM of the Republic of Moldova - e.n.] were Prime Minister, we would have tried what people are truly interested in. Like the pandemic and healthcare. I will tell you now, it's clear it's a policy. At the beginning it could have been a mistake, but now it seems that it's a policy that Romania not do tests. We test 10 pct of what Italy, Spain or France are testing and then we announce we have the same number of cases or a bit lower. Until September 27, so the real number of infected is not seen, we will not have tests in the public area financed by the state, as would be normal. Those who needed to leave the country or have another stringent problem go to the private companies, they pay an important sum of money that many cannot afford. I have a good salary as an MP, but I could not have a test a week, because it's expensive and the state does not discount this test. Then we keep the test numbers very low and for that reason we are first in Europe of positive tests, because the government intentionally does not want to test to show us how fine everything is and that there's no problem with the elections," said Victor Ponta during a press conference.
He claimed at the same time that in the coming period, when the local elections will take place, thousands of people will be infected with the novel coronavirus.
In this same context, the Pro Romania leader expressed doubt regarding the success of a future collaboration in government between the National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Save Romania Union (USR).
