On Tuesday, our colleagues from PressOne send shockwaves through the government palace in Piața Victoriei: They published an article accusing PM Nicolae Ciucă of having plagiarised his doctoral thesis. Renowned investigative journalist and plagiarism hunter Emilia Șercan claimed in the article that 42 pages out of Ciucă 138-page thesis were not his own work and had been taken from other sources without attribution.

The PM has denied the plagiarism accusation, saying the work was completed according to the “legal requirement at the time”, reported Euractiv. He asked the Ethics Committee of the university that awarded him the doctorate to investigate the claims.

If proven true, Ciucă follows in the footsteps of illustrious politicians like former PM Victor Ponta, former Deputy PM Gabriel Oprea, former Minister of Finance Darius Vâlcov and former Minister of Health Florian Bodog. Aside from plagiarism, they have another thing in common: none of them had to resign because of their plagiarised academic work.