Premium
The President of UDMR (Democratic Union of Hungarians of Romania), Deputy Prime Minister Kelemen Hunor, on Friday told AGERPRES that there should be no discussion about a crisis facing the governing coalition, because the Union has fulfilled all its obligations so far assumed with its partners, while the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban, never spoke of either Romania or the Bucharest authorities while he was paying a visit to the Tusnad resort.
Kelemen Hunor reiterated the "extremely clear" position of the UDMR condemning Russia's aggression against Ukraine.
"We don't agree with war, we don't agree with any way to attack a sovereign state, and from this point of view we have not had and do not have disputes in the coalition. So we all agree with this position from the very beginning. Moreover, one can criticize certain decisions taken by our colleagues at the European Union level, where, of course, heads of state and government represent the European Union, they take decisions together, they take decisions by consensus, that's the culture of consensus in the Union. This does not mean that we cannot criticize certain attitudes. We can criticize. Romania can criticize, and Hungary can criticize, and France and all those who are in the Union, because neither in the European treaties, nor in the accession treaties it's written that freedom of expression and the freedom to have a nuanced, different opinion are prohibited. There is no such thing!," underscored the Deputy Prime Minister.
According to the leader of the UDMR, there have been and there will probably be in the future, too, disputes in the European Union, but this does not concern the governing coalition, its cohesion.
"I saw that many said: "UDMR must be removed from the government." But why? If we were talking about our own statements, our action or inaction in the Government, about how we observed the governing programme, the agreement the coalition is based on and the interests of the Government and of the country, yes, ok. We can look for sanctions, we can look for all sorts of issues related to the functioning, to the improvement of the coalition, but this is not the case. Yes, let's have a discussion, we have nothing against it, when someone brings up the topic at a future meeting of the coalition, we can discuss this. It is an important topic, I understand, but no one can say at this points that the UDMR or the leaders of the Union failed to respect the partners in the coalition, failed to respect the agreement in the coalition, the governing programme or acted against the general and specific interests of Romania. That cannot be said," claimed Kelemen Hunor.
He added that he would like as many EU leaders as possible to come to Romania to present their vision. "I would like as many leaders from the European Union as possible to come to Romania, to hear a lot of opinions and visions about what awaits us, how we want to make it easier for the citizens of the states in the Union, and I think we would all get closer to the truth if we listened to a lot of points of view, whether we agree with them or not. So we can clarify this position, I think our positions are extremely transparent, and of course we try to answer all the questions asked," stated the Deputy PM.
Kelemen Hunor mentioned that "Viktor Orban brought some additional clarifications, in Vienna, to his speech in Tusnad, specifying that he condemns racism and that his statement was presented in a different way than intended, and that probably that wrong sentence, interpretable, was taken out of context and it was reinterpreted."
Regarding the applause received by Orban, the UDMR leader said that no one could prevent those present at the event in Baile Tusnad, many of whom came out of curiosity, to applaud out of respect, politeness or for other reasons.
President Klaus Iohannis stated, on Friday, that there is a need for public clarifications from the UDMR in the context of the speech delivered in Romania by the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban, but also for a clarifying discussion within the coalition.
According to Iohannis, "no one in Romania wants to cause a government crisis because a high-ranking foreign dignitary gave an erroneous speech."
