USR announced on Monday that it has launched a website where Romanians can demand the resignation of Lucian Bode. In addition, Ionuc Mostianu, a spokesman for the USR, said his formation would initiate a simple lawsuit against the interior minister at the upcoming parliamentary session if he did not resign from his position.

“It’s been 5 days since Babes Bolyai University said that Minister Lucian Bode stole his doctorate. (…) USR asks President Klaus Iohannis to urgently clarify his position regarding the retention of an indisputably proven plagiarist in a high public position. As long as he remains silent, Klaus Iohannis is a direct accomplice and shares the responsibility for the shame Bode is bringing to this country,” asks Ionuc Mostianu, USR spokesperson.

At the same time, Mostianu announced that the USR has also launched a website: https://bodedemisia.ro, where Romanians who want Bode to leave the ministry can message him with two clicks of the mouse and ask him to resign. .

USR’s approach comes five days after a commission from Babes Boilai University announced that suspicions of plagiarism in the case of Interior Minister Lucian Bode’s doctoral dissertation had been confirmed.

What Johannis said about plagiarism

In October 2022, President Klaus Iohannis made a public statement following the resignation of Education Minister Sorin Kimpeanu, who was in turn accused of plagiarism. Speaking at the opening of the academic year at the University of Architecture in Bucharest, Iohannis said in his speech that education laws should contain clear provisions to prevent and punish plagiarism, a “toxic phenomenon in the educational environment”.

• Klaus Iohannis: “I am convinced that we need a deep reform of the education system to adapt it to the needs of the 21st century and the European values ​​we believe in. One of these values ​​is integrity, so I want a radical, unequivocal paradigm for guaranteeing integrity and ethics in academic life.
• To do this, we need zero tolerance for plagiarism, and new education laws must contain clear provisions to prevent and punish this toxic phenomenon in the educational environment.”

VIDEO Yohannis, the first appearance since the resignation of Tsimpeanu, is accused of plagiarism. Speech to students: “We need zero tolerance for plagiarism”

Iohannis: “Thieves sat at the top of the state also because of the too high tolerance of society and the university environment for plagiarism”

In May 2019, President Klaus Iohannis explained why “thieves sat at the top of the state” and also concluded that “the one who engaged in plagiarism should be deprived of the title”.

“In our country, thieves sat at the top of the state, and this also became possible due to the too high tolerance of society and the university environment to plagiarism. Because plagiarism is a form of theft. If it is tolerated, politicians conclude that it is possible to tolerate even more. And now, unfortunately, we have evidence that at this point it is possible or was possible. I hope it ‘can’ end as soon as possible,” the president said in 2019.

He recalled that this phenomenon arose in the 90s, when many politicians were involved in universities on the initiative of some scientists.

• Klaus Johannis: “In order to be attractive to politicians, they were offered one or two doctorates on a plate. Very quickly, some politicians noticed that it can be done and without them nothing, the work is delivered to them, almost the debate is delivered to them. And here the universities pulled the handbrake very late. Evolution is more complex, long-term, and can’t be solved, unfortunately, by simply saying “okay, stop plagiarizing,” because things have gotten more complicated in the meantime. The one who engaged in plagiarism should remain without the obtained title and without the benefit obtained from plagiarism, but this should not be done by the police or the prosecutor’s office, but by the university that issued the corresponding title.