Bucharest---Prime Minister Victor Ponta refused to step down after being hit on Friday by corruption allegations, the highest sitting Romanian leader targeted in a long-running anti-graft campaign in one of the EU's poorest nations.
President Klaus Iohannis, Ponta's conservative rival, called for his resignation after the powerful DNA anti-corruption agency decided to launch a probe against the social-democrat premier.
The president said the allegations of money laundering, tax evasion and conflict of interest put the country in "an impossible situation".
"The worst that could happen would be to have a political crisis" in the small and struggling EU country, said Iohannis, calling for his resignation.
But Ponta, who lost to Iohannis in a bid for the presidency in November, looked set to fight to hold onto the premiership.
"Only parliament can unseat me," he said on Facebook. "I respect the president's public position but I was named to this position by parliament", where the leftwing coalition led by his social-democrat party has a large majority.
"The respect of constitutional principles is essential to our society and in no case could I accept that a prosecutor be above parliament, the government and citizens," Ponta added.
If that were the case it would be "dictatorship", he added, a strong slur in a country that ousted its communist regime 25 years ago.
- Ball in parliament's court -
Romania's prosecutors earlier Friday said they were launching a criminal probe into Ponta on suspicion of involvement in tax evasion, money laundering and conflict of interest.
The prosecutors will file a formal request for an investigation with parliament, which would have to strip the premier of his immunity for the probe to proceed, said a statement from the country's anti-corruption agency DNA.
Parliament meets later Friday and staunch anti-corruption crusader, Laura Kovesi, who heads the DNA, said "We are waiting for parliament's official response."
The DNA, whose anti-corruption drive is regularly praised by the European Commission, said the premier was suspected of "forging documents ... (and) continuous complicity in tax evasion" and money laundering while working as lawyer between 2007 and 2011.
Ponta is accused of receiving the equivalent of around 55,000 euros (about $61,000) from his political ally Dan Sova, a member of parliament suspected by the DNA of abuse of power in three cases but who has maintained his parliamentary immunity.
The probe is the latest in a string of anti-corruption enquiries carried out by the powerful agency, probes that have led to the removal of several influential Romanians over the past months.
The former finance minister Darius Valcov was taken in for police questioning in March after lawmakers revoked his ministerial immunity.
Days later the investigators seized dozens of paintings, including three by Pablo Picasso.
Romania is the second poorest nation in the European Union after Bulgaria.
AFP
