The man tipped to be the future prime minister of Romania has sent his chief spokesman to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington to brush up on Jewish history after he downplayed the Shoah in a television interview.
The leader of the main opposition Social Democratic Party (PSD), Victor Ponta, suspended Senator Dan Sova following a public outcry over a TV interview in which he said that a pogrom in the city of Iasi in June 1941 resulted in only 23 or 24 Jewish casualties.
During the interview, Mr Sova added that the Romanian pro-Fascist government had no involvement in the massacre and that it was carried out only by German soldiers.
Mr Ponta said he had sent Mr Sova to Washington to personally see the evidence for the massacre at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.
