Victor Ponta
Victor Viorel Ponta (; born 20 September 1972) is a Romanian jurist and politician, who served as Prime Minister of Romania between his appointment by President Traian Băsescu in May 2012 and his resignation in November 2015. A former member of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and its leader from 2010 to 2015, he was also joint leader (2012–2014) of the then-governing Social Liberal Union (USL), an alliance with the National Liberal Party (PNL). Ponta was a member of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies for Gorj County from 2004 to 2020. In the Emil Boc cabinet, he was Minister-Delegate for Relations with Parliament from 2008 to 2009. Ponta began his time as head of government with a victory for his alliance in local elections, as well as criticism from civil society after several prominent Băsescu-associated figures in government-funded culture and history institutes were removed or resigned from their posts. Eventually, a political crisis broke out with the replacement of the heads of each legislative chamber and an attempt to dismiss Băsescu – an effort that ultimately failed when the subsequent impeachment referendum was invalidated by the Constitutional Court due to low turnout. Meanwhile, Ponta was the subject of controversy due