UDMR demands the resignation of its own minister, after a recording appeared in the public space: “It is a natural and responsible gesture”
“The UDMR demarcates both the vulgar language and the content of such statements,” said Union spokesperson Csoma Botond, referring to an audio recording attributed to the UDMR's Minister of Culture, Demeter András István, who was asked to resign.
The publication 2mnews.ro published on Monday an audio recording of what it described as a conversation held by Demeter Andras Istvan in November 2025, in an office of the Ministry of Culture, in which he explains to subordinate employees, using licentious language, the reaction he had in 2012 when he was interviewed by the General Prosecutor's Office in a corruption case in which a possible fraud at Radio Romania was being investigated following the purchase of Radio Chisinau from the Republic of Moldova.
“The resignation of the minister is the natural and responsible gesture”
Csoma Botond reacted, on Facebook, saying that “UDMR delimits itself both from vulgar language and from the content of such statements, incompatible with the responsibility of a public office and likely to affect trust in state institutions and in the values of public service”.
“We consider that, in such a context, the resignation of the minister is the natural and responsible gesture. Statements of this type do not only affect the image of a person, but project unfair and lasting effects on the Hungarian community and on its political representation. That is precisely why it is important that public responsibility is assumed with lucidity and decency”, added the spokesperson of the UDMR.
He called for handling the situation “with balance and responsibility, without political instrumentalization and without turning an individual controversy into a discourse that stigmatizes an entire ethnic community.”
“Criticism of certain statements or behaviors cannot justify generalizations and collective labeling”, concluded Csoma Botond.
