UDMR deputy leader Choma Botond said on Monday that his party is considering leaving the government if it loses the environment ministry to the PNL, adding that Hungarian leaders only learned of the intention today, the News reported. ro.

Kelemen Hunor with Nicolae Chuka and Marcel CholakuPhoto: Inquam Photos / Cornel Putan

When asked by Prima News in the program Country Project: Romania, how he comments on the fact that the PNL wants the Ministry of the Environment in the Government Council, he stated that the representatives of the UDMR officially learned about it today.

“Today I found out officially, until now it was based on sources. We do not agree, I do not think that there are appropriate arguments to justify reducing the role of UDMR in management. I believe that in all the ministries that I headed, the UDMR did its job well,” Choma Botonad said.

He clarified that if we approach purely mathematically, then the ruling coalition should focus on 2021.

“If in 2021 our regulated value was x plus 1, when USR left the government, I don’t think we would now have a value of X minus 1. (..) I don’t think there is a proper argument to justify we have less ministries, and other parties have the same weight,” Botond said.

UDMR declares that it does not cling to power

Answering the question of what the Union will do in the event of the loss of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Choma Botond said:

“It will be a statutory decision, but (..) there are many voices that say we should not stay in government, because then, according to the public, we would rather stay at the helm. Because in this case it is not a professional assessment, but a political assessment, and we cannot agree with it, and there are many voices in the organization that I represent, which say that we should not stay under these conditions.”

“We are also considering the option of leaving the government. I tell you what the views of the party are. This is not a solution,” the UDMR representative emphasized.

At the end of April, UDMR president Kelemen Hunor said that his formation wants to remain in the government after the change of prime minister, recalling that it entered the government in 2020, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and numerous urgent problems.

His comments came after the UDMR ceded its seats in the ANRE leadership to the PSD and the PNL, causing scandal in the governing coalition.