UDMR leader after consultations with PM-designate: Written agreement is best solution, in-depth discussions required

Chairman of the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) Kelemen Hunor said on Thursday that the UDMR parliamentary groups will decide on the Union's possibly backing a government headed by Liberal Ludovic Orban and that this also requires a written agreement. "Whenever we agree to provide parliamentary support - of course, when we are in a coalition, there's another discussion - we also put down an agreement. From our point of view, this would be the optimal solution, the best solution: a written agreement. We also discussed a tentative written agreement. Neither we, nor the PNL colleagues have reached a decision yet, but my not so long 20-year experience with Romanian politics (... ) has taught me that even written agreements are often broken. Yet, it's good to have an agreement put on paper," Kelemen Hunor said at the Palace of Parliament after consultations with Prime Minister-designate Ludovic Orban. He pointed out that UDMR's request had been that emergency ordinances be no longer issued on the Justice laws or the electoral system before the 2020 local and parliamentary elections and without taking responsibility before Parliament. "We think we should continue these discussions. Next week we will brief our groups on everything we discussed today. We didn't promise support, because due to what happened in previous years there is a low level of trust between UDMR and PNL, and this is why we need very sincere and (...) in-depth discussions to see what the government intends to do," added Kelemen Hunor. AGERPRES (RO - author: Livia Popescu, editor: Florin Marin; EN - author: Simona Klodnischi, editor: Simona Iacob)