PSD MEP Mihai Tudose says he will not join a government that includes current Energy Minister Virgil Popescu, but he may sit at the same table with Interior Minister Luciano Bode, who has been accused of plagiarism. In this context, Mihai Tudose, also accused of plagiarism, attacked journalist Emilia Serkan, who discovered plagiarism in the case of many politicians, including Bode, writes News.ro.

Tudos was asked on Prima TV on Saturday if he would enter the government.

• “I don’t know. It depends on many things. (…) Yes, I agree to join the government, but according to the government’s plan and according to the plan where I go to do something.
• So that I can photograph the ministry or the government, I’m sorry, but no,” Tudose said, according to News.ro.

When asked if he would agree to be a colleague in the future government with Virgil Popescu, Tudose answered in the negative. Answering the question whether he will condition his entry into the government, the SDP MEP said: “You asked me, I don’t set conditions. I said no.”

“So far he has no conviction for plagiarism”

He was also asked if he would sit down with Interior Minister Luciano Bode, accused of plagiarism, saying he had no problem with him.

When informed that Lucian Bode was accused of plagiarism, he replied:

• “He currently has no convictions for plagiarism. I also have a problem with plagiarism, that someone woke up, who in turn is accused of plagiarism, that I plagiarized. I have a paper that I did not plagiarize. (…) I’m talking about Emilia Sherkan.”

In response to the moderator’s remark that Bode has a UBB conviction for plagiarism, the former PSD Prime Minister said:

• “The University of Cluj gave another one a week earlier for lack of plagiarism. Now we are waiting for the next verdict. Perhaps the next verdict is that it is not plagiarism again. I don’t know, I haven’t read the piece, but for now there is no paper, that’s all.”

Mihai Tudose, PSD Prime Minister from June 2017 to January 2018, currently a PSD MEP after being elected on Pro Romania lists, was accused of plagiarizing his doctoral thesis from the SRI Academy in a 2015 article by the Romanian Investigative Journalism Center (CRJI). At that time, Tudose was the Minister of Economy in the government of Victor Ponta.

In July 2017, a month after he was appointed prime minister, a complaint was filed against Tudos with the National Council for the Attestation of University Titles, Diplomas and Certificates (CNATDCU) for plagiarism, which was publicly exposed in 2015, writes PressOne.ro .

For its part, the Ethics Commission of the SRI Academy recognized the thesis of Mihai Tudos as plagiarism and proposed to revoke the doctoral degree. However, in 2017, the decision of the Ethics Commission was overturned by the Senate of the Academy of Scientific Research, which referred to another verdict, this time on non-plagiarism, issued a few months later by a commission of “external experts”.

To avoid a verdict of plagiarism, Tudose submitted two applications to the Ministry of Education to withdraw his doctorate. The former prime minister submitted the first request to renounce the title of doctor on March 3, 2016, and the second on November 13, 2018. The former prime minister did not wait 30 days to see if he would receive a possible response from the Ministry of Education – the deadline stipulated by the legislation in the field of petitions – and on November 19 he registered a summons in the Bucharest Court of Appeal, writes pressone.

However, in the spring of 2020, Mihai Tudose lost a lawsuit against the Ministry of Education in the first instance. On March 5, the Galats Court of Appeal rejected Tudose’s claim as unfounded.