Hungarian party in Romania restates agreement with PNL and USR on prime minister candidate

Romania’s Hungarian party, UDMR, has renewed its agreement with the Liberal Party (PNL) and reformist Save Romania Union (USR) to support Siegfried Mureșan as their joint candidate for prime minister, UDMR president Kelemen Hunor told Maszol.ro on August 31. He thus pushed back against speculation about an imminent ruling coalition centred around the Social Democratic Party (PSD), reportedly being pursued by president Nicușor Dan.

UDR seems to see PSD as not capable of gaining majority support in Parliament for a PSD-centered government, even with their votes. Relying on lawmakers of far-right orientation has been stated as a red line by UDMR in the past, and it was the main reason for not backing the prime minister candidate Adrian Vestea in Parliament. Only the participation of a sufficiently large part of PNL in PSD’s project could most likely convince the Hungarian party to join the coalition that would thus gain majority parliamentary support.