UDMR President Kelemen Hunor reaffirms the Hungarian party’s support for a government proposed by PNL MEP Siegfried Mureșan.
„Today, following discussions within UDMR, we have reached the conclusion that we will go ahead and take on this vote,” stated Kelemen Hunor on Tuesday evening on Euronews Romania.
He admits that, according to parliamentary arithmetic, the government proposed by him would not pass with just the votes of PNL, USR, and UDMR.
Kelemen Hunor says that, based on the data regarding the number of parliamentarians from each party who have announced their support for the cabinet proposed by Siegfried Mureșan, it would have 171 votes, including 81 from PNL, 59 from USR, and 31 from UDMR parliamentarians.
"This assumes that everyone is present, no one is sick, no one is absent, and everyone votes for it. Mr. Mureșan will discuss with the PSD, he has announced this, with Mr. Grindeanu. I don't know what the discussion will be, I don't know when it will be, because it's not my job to sit next to Mr. Mureșan in such a discussion.
He comes with the government program, with the offer, he will have this discussion with colleagues from the PSD, he will have a discussion with the minority group, he told us that tomorrow, probably after finishing the discussion there, he will go to them. I don't know what the discussions will be there, but knowing to some extent the government program, or what has been outlined so far, the minority group should have no reason not to support it, because what we had in the previous program under the minorities section will also be in the new government program.
But, of course, their decision must be awaited. This means 188 votes, if we consider that the minority group will vote for this government. And then there are the unaffiliated, where you can eventually discuss individually, as they do not have a group, they do not have the opportunity to discuss. 20, but there is always movement up and down. This would mean 208," explained Kelemen Hunor.
The UDMR leader rejected ideas that Siegfried Mureșan's proposal in the summer was made to also provide PNL with a proposal, after PSD announced its support for Sorin Grindeanu for the position of prime minister.
"We must avoid any wrong interpretation that this proposal in June was made just like that, so that we also have a proposal, after PSD proposed Mr. Grindeanu, because some would have interpreted in this sense if Siegfried Mureșan, before the vote, would have withdrawn from this race after accepting the nomination and designation from the president," said Kelemen.
The leader of the Hungarian party admitted that the designation of Siegfried Mureșan was "atypical."
"And it was a surprise for us. Yes, it was a surprise for me in the sense that no one told me. Ilie Bolojan called me at one point and told me that he had spoken with Siegfried: he called me and told me that he had spoken with the president and in a few minutes he would designate him.
Bolojan, in turn, found out from Siegfried Mureșan. So that was indeed an atypical designation, but the Constitution does not specify an exact procedure on how the designation should be," Kelemen Hunor further stated.
"Rest assured that it will be a very good program"
Kelemen Hunor refused to comment on the possible names of ministers in the cabinet that designated Prime Minister Siegfried Mureșan will propose, saying that he has not discussed with him either about names or portfolios.
He states that, since Mureșan's proposal for the position of prime minister, the three parties that announced their support have not discussed these aspects.
"I cannot comment at all on this list because we have not had any discussion about structure and portfolios. (...) Last night we stayed until half past ten on the program, on the main ideas of the program, without opening this subject. So I cannot comment.
We discussed about the ideas, especially on tax areas, on a few more difficult areas, what we should do if we had the opportunity to have a government, but we did not discuss about portfolios. We simply had no reason to discuss portfolios, as we were not in a situation to divide the structure of the Government into three," Kelemen argued.
He emphasized that the government program has not been finalized, and it can be completed once the ministers are designated.
Kelemen added that the government program will be for a maximum of two years, considering that Romania is halfway through the electoral cycle.
"It is almost ready, rest assured that it will be a very good program. Before the ten-day deadline, on Friday afternoon, at the latest by evening, the government program and the list of ministers will be in Parliament," Kelemen Hunor affirmed.