UDMR President Kelemen Hunor said on Friday in Cluj that Romania should continue its efforts to join Schengen and that it should not succumb to “shameless blackmail by Austria”.

“Disgusting and stupid decision of Austria, wrong, immoral and shameless decision as a political game. Romania 11 years ago fulfilled the technical conditions for accession, and all of them were dismantled at the moment by Austria just because it could, because Austria’s internal problem cannot be solved in any way without disparaging others. We must continue to stick firmly to our principles, we must continue our work, we must demand the enlargement of Schengen with dignity, courage and without compromise. We will not give in to Austria’s shameless blackmail,” the UDMR leader said, according to Agerpres.

The statement of the leader of the UDMR appeared the day after he accused the Austrians of skipping a vote on our country’s accession to Schengen in the JAI Council.

“Romania did what it had to do, no one knew that Austria would come back so suddenly. (…) We have no reason to blame each other for anything at the moment. If there was a problem with the technical criteria, then of course anyone would have the right to tell us that “the government didn’t do its job”. And the anger about this is very great. We were unfairly humiliated. Of course I’m angry. (..) Austria made a donkey and, instead of going to a technical assessment, as it should have been, he cast a political vote,” the leader of the UDMR claimed.

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