PM Ponta: I will challenge the prosecutor's order

Prime Minister Victor Ponta on Sunday, after the meeting of the ruling coalition leaders, said he will challenge the prosecutor's order in his case.

"From a procedural stand, as any citizen of Romania, I will challenge the order issued on Thursday by the case prosecutor, with the superior prosecutor, and then with the judge. Because, so far, I haven't got the chance to be heard by anyone; neither by the prosecutor nor by the judge, and I believe it is the constitutional right of any person in this country to be heard when accused of something. (...) I will go on Tuesday, on Wednesday, when the prosecutor summons me, to challenge the order," Ponta said at the Palace of Parliament.

He underscored he is incriminated for alleged acts occurred in 2007-2008, on which a case was opened in 2012 following Monica Macovei's accusations.

Ponta added he wants to prove his innocence, maintaining that his incrimination, from a political point of view, has the purpose of changing the current Government and the current majority.

"According to all definitions, a government is changed by means of elections or by vote in Parliament. Any other method means a coupe d'etat and I don't wish for us to live in a country in which governments are changed otherwise than by constitutional procedures," the Prime Minister said.

The Social Democratic Party (PSD) Chairman showed that in 2007-2008 he wasn't holding any state office and the party he is a member of wasn't part of the government. He also said that he was accused without having previously been heard.

"I have never been an associate, not that this would have been a bad thing, but I have never been an associate at the firm Mr Sova was part of. His commercial relations were with the State Assets...