INTERVIEW. Kelemen Hunor says which party disappeared after accepting what the PSD has now proposed to the PNL to accept

The PNL is currently in the situation of the PNȚCD since 1998, when the former Democratic Party forced the departure of Victor Ciorbea from the head of the Government, claims the leader of the UDMR, Kelemen Hunor, in a short interview for HotNews. This is because now PSD is forcing the change of Bolojan from the head of the Government. The peasants then accepted Ciorbea's “sacrifice”, and what followed led to the party's demise.

• “I'm not saying that this will also happen with the PNL,” Kelemen states, but associates the moments.

On Monday evening, the president of the UDMR, Kelemen Hunor, said on Digi 24, that the current PSD movement resembles one of Romania's post-December history, when a historical party began to cease to matter.

“I said that there is a precedent when a party from a coalition asked to change the prime minister of another party. It was the PNȚCD moment from then, when the PD demanded the change of Ciorbea with Radu Vasile. They kept it that way for a long time, until the PNȚCD accepted this change”, says Kelemen Hunor in the interview for HotNews.

Appointed prime minister in December 1996, at the proposal of the then new president Emil Constantinescu, Victor Ciorbea (PNȚCD) had to resign in March 1998 after a conflict with the then Minister of Transport Traian Băsescu (Democratic Party). The PD had initiated a no-confidence motion, and Ciorbea resigned before, in his place the peasants appointed the general secretary of the formation, Radu Vasile, as prime minister, approved by Băsescu.

The PNL would enter a dead end if they accepted Bolojan's change without a no-confidence motion

Hotnews: – You said that then the disappearance of PNȚCD began.
Kelemen Hunor: – Yes, I said that this was the mistake that led to the disappearance of the PNȚCD, unfortunately. The moment you accept someone else outside the party to make such a change, surely you can no longer stand on your feet. And Radu Vasile, may God rest him, was a wonderful, pleasant man, I worked with him, a poet, he was put in Ciorbea's place, because that's what the PD requested from then”

– But why did you feel the need to join these moments? Who is the new PNȚCD in the current situation?
– the PNL. I said that the PNL, if it accepts the change of the prime minister, who this time is the president of the party, without a motion of censure, regardless of whether the request comes from me, from Fritz or Grindeanu or Pambuccian – now I'm only talking about those in the coalition – it means that they are entering a dead end, with no way out. That's what I said and that's how it should be understood. It's not about PSD, it's a principle that you can't accept.

If you, as a party, would accept such a request, it means that you are no longer an autonomous party. You can give up the coalition, you can make a motion of censure, you can do many things, but there is no way for the PNL to respond positively to such a request, with all due respect to everyone.

– You basically say that if the PNL were to accept such an ultimatum from the PSD, it could even lead to the party's disappearance.
– No, I'm not saying this. I say that it was a precedent and that precedent had a known end for a parliamentary party from that coalition, from that government arch. I'm not saying that the PNL will get there, that's up to you, if you want.

The extended leadership of the liberals re-expressed their support for Prime Minister Bolojan on Tuesday, in a four-hour meeting, as a result of PSD's decision to demand his resignation. At the end of the meeting, Ilie Bolojan announced that PNL will no longer form a coalition with PSD because it has generated a political crisis, and the liberals will start discussions with the parties that support the current government – USR, UDMR, minorities – to find a minority government formula.