PNL-UDMR rows on Romania’s National Day

The president of PNL Satu Mare, Adrian Cozma, demanded, on Friday, again, the exclusion of the UDMR from the government, this time on the grounds that “the leaders of the UDMR did not send any kind of message to Romania, to the Romanians on National Day”. Among the UDMR leaders, only the Minister of Sports, Eduard Novak, published a message on Romania’s National Day on his Facebook page.

“UDMR has nothing to look for in the government. The leaders of the UDMR did not send any kind of message to Romania, to the Romanians on the National Day. Not even one of minimal decency, a simple happy birthday. There is no message on the UDMR page either and I think that disqualifies them. How can you claim to represent a country if you show your contempt for it on your face? Since March 15, all of us here have been sending happy birthday messages to the Hungarians. And we do it out of respect. We do not ask them to rejoice, although in this country they govern at the central and local level, they have mayors, presidents of county councils. The UDMR has a greater representation in relation to the number of citizens of Hungarian ethnicity, being greatly advantaged by the voting system, and despite all this, we do not see a connection between them and the Romanian state, we do not see respect for national symbols, on the contrary. I think we need to redo the governance formula. The UDMR can no longer represent the Romanian state at this level,” said PNL MP from Satu Mare Adrian Cozma.

Minister of Sports, Eduard Novak, member of UDMR, was the only Magyar official who congratulated Romania on its National Day on December 1.

“I would like to dedicate my December 1st message to those who know the hard work behind a medal, a title, a high performance, regardless of the field. To those who make us proud.I still wish them a lot of strength, confidence and to fight to the end for their ideals.Happy Birthday Romania!”

Liberal Cozma’s attack on the UDMR comes after the speech of the UDMR deputy Csoma Botond, who said in the speech during the solemn session of the Parliament devoted to the celebration of December 1, that “the political and religious leaders of the Transylvanian Romanians knew very well that Transylvania was not only Romanian , but also Hungarian, Saxon and Jewish”.

This statement also infuriated the leader of the PSD in the governing coalition, Marcel Ciolacu, who asked Kelemen Hunor, the president of the UDMR, to ask Csoma Botond to apologize.

At the end of July, Cozma called for the UDMR to leave the government, saying that Deputy Prime Minister Kelemen Hunor, the leader of the UDMR, and Environment Minister Tanczos Barna (UDMR) “applauded and supported (Viktor – ed.) Orban’s policy” during the Hungarian Prime Minister’s visit to Băile Tușnad, where he gave a speech against racial “mixing” between Europeans and non-Europeans. Later, the PNL Satu Mare leadership decided to break the local government alliance in a meeting of the County Political Bureau.