Prime Minister-designate Siegfried Muresan announced that he will not negotiate with the Alliance for Romanians' Union (AUR) for its support for the government he will propose, but added that he cannot control how individual MPs will vote.
Muresan told RFI Romania on Monday that AUR is not "committed to European values" and that recently it has not demonstrated "responsible" political behaviour aimed at solving Romania's problems.
Populist parties in Europe are playing on people's "fears" and, the worse things are for people, "the more fuel they have for their anti-establishment and populist action," he said.
"We will not have a dialogue with AUR in the sense of discussing things with them or altering our governing programme as a result of requests they make. Obviously, we do not know how each AUR MP will vote. We cannot control MPs from any party, including our own parties. Voting is free. MPs vote according to their own conscience. (...) You will not see me going to AUR headquarters, you will not see me asking for their support. I do not know how they will vote. Based on the public messages they have issued so far, they have not shown any intention of supporting this government," Muresan said.
The prime minister-designate also announced that he would first hold talks with the parliamentary groups of the National Liberal Party (PNL), Save Romania Union (USR) and the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR), and would subsequently present the governing programme to the group representing national minorities.
"The test of truth will be given by PSD [Social Democratic Party]," which will have to decide whether it wants a pro-European government or whether it is in a "strengthened partnership" with AUR. The passage of the government will depend on this, Muresan stressed.
"The moment of truth is coming for PSD. We will see whether PSD really wants to support a pro-European government or whether it is strengthening its partnership with AUR. Everyone knows that I am not a PSD affiliate, but I will be open to dialogue and... I will do everything within my power to facilitate the formation of a government and the passage of this government. I will have a dialogue with PSD. I think it is natural for us to be open, but we need to understand whether there is a genuine willingness for dialogue on their part or whether they are simply looking for excuses to vote against this government," he added.
Muresan announced that he would include in the governing programme objectives that the Social Democrats "claim to want". These include support for a "modern and efficient" state serving its citizens.
"Except that until now there has been a discrepancy between what PSD said and what it did. Protecting an inefficient administration and state-owned companies with insufficient investment and underperforming management... here, I am sorry, but we would be doing Romanians a disservice if we continued with these things," he said.
Muresan voiced his belief that, in the coming years, the political scene would become polarised between the reformist forces - led by PNL, USR and UDMR - and AUR.
"I am convinced that at the next election PSD will, for the first time, be a party that will be neither first nor second. It will be third or lower in the next parliamentary election," he said.
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