UDMR's Kelemen Hunor: There isn't sufficient trust in this Government

The MPs of the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) votes in favor of the decree of the president to extend the state of emergency by 30 days, but believe that the Government must take firm measures in healthcare and economy, in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, and have a dialogue with Parliament, stated on Thursday the chairman of the UDMR, Kelemen Hunor, in the joint sitting of the two Parliament chambers.

"Nearly five weeks passed since we voted a minority government, proposed by the National Liberal Party. Then we had a single argument behind that vote, namely that Romania was at the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic. And in these conditions, you received a blank check. The President of Romania decreed immediately the state of emergency, which we again voted. And, through that vote given by Parliament, once more, you received additional powers. You received the responsibility you desired and all the necessary administrative instruments to manage the country, in order to protect the lives of people, in order to make decisions in the post-pandemic perspective, in order to protect, firstly, small and medium-sized enterprises, jobs, without which Romania would risk not only being a poor country on the edge of Europe, but could also become very vulnerable to all the changes that will follow this pandemic," said the UDMR leader.

He showed that the Government should rather be punished and criticized a series of measures taken by the Government "which were not necessary".

"I saw many measures that were not necessary. We all saw that no democracy more advanced in the European Union - Germany, France, Italy, Spain - countries that are facing an epidemiological crisis far more grave, did not ask for derogations from the enforcement of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), but the Government led by Mr. Ludovic Orban did. We saw how some head of institutions subordinated to the government were preoccupied with purging and stalking employees, prefects that are still in political war mode and who were far too little concerned by the epidemiological situation. We saw how the government was rushing to renounce minimum decisional transparency, in order to adopt emergency ordinance in the realm of organic laws - thus illegally - and we saw the most sinister decision of the Interior Affairs Minister the moment the President requested the extension of the state of emergency," said the UDMR leader.

Kelemen Hunor believes that "there is necessity, certainly, for courageous and coherent measures and programmes in order to help the business environment and to protect employees," and added that "what was totally lacking - and not due to the Parliament - was dialogue between Parliament and Government."