Deputy Prime-Minister Gabriel Oprea said on Tuesday that he had no problem regarding his Ph.D paper and that he suspects that the plagiarism allegations made against him were just an attempt to ‘hamper’ both him, because he had risen to the third position as public confidence, and ‘UNPR’, which had become the third biggest party in Romanian politics.
Gabriel Oprea spoke, on Tuesday, about the plagiarism allegations on his own initiative. In a discussion with the journalists on the hallways of the Parliament Palace, Gabriel Oprea told them he would have liked to be asked about the plagiarism allegations.
‘I would have liked you to ask me something. I would have liked to be asked about my plagiarism. I agree that all politicians should have their doctoral paper checked. Mine has just been checked’, said Oprea.
He added that he had obtained his Ph.D when he was ‘neither a politician nor an official’. ‘My paper has been checked and where there is law there is no bargaining. Experts on criminal law were invited to be part of the commission that checked me and they came to one conclusion, in unanimity, that I had not plagiarised. It’s a commission under the law, I am talking about the law, I am not passing personal opinions’.
Oprea also explained why he believed he was being attacked over the plagiarism. ‘Both Gabi Oprea and UNPR should be hampered a little, because they are running a bit loose. I have risen to the third place as confidence, UNPR has become the third biggest party in Romania. I understand that everyone should be hooked with something. They came up with the plagiarism thing, which, in my case, is a false theme’.
