The government rotation scheduled for next year will be a problem, taking into account that a deadlock may occur, Chairman of the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR) Kelemen Hunor said on Monday evening.

Asked on Euronews Romania private television station whether this government can resist, with Ilie Bolojan as prime minister, the UDMR leader said that 'this depends solely on the PNL (the National Liberal Party)' adding in this context that the government rotation will pose a problem.

'If the PNL supports the party chairman, Ilie Bolojan, then it will resist. (...) As long as the PNL supports Bolojan, Bolojan will certainly resist. The rotation will take place in a year's time. It is a problem. I admit that I did not support the rotation last year, this is known, because I saw the rotation in 2023. How? We approached the rotation and Ciuca no longer had authority in the central administration, because civil servants knew the rotation was coming, 'let's find more pretexts not to do what needs to be done'. After that, of course, the one who is to come in through the rotation wants to be part of administrative decisions, not only political ones, because he says: 'from tomorrow I bear the responsibility'. And then a deadlock forms. I saw this in 2023 - beyond the fact that we were pushed down the stairs at the rotation and we said that rotation is not something good. (...) We had arguments when this matter was discussed, but in the end this is life in a coalition, everyone gives in somewhere,' the UDMR leader explained.

In his view, the government rotation in 2023 was not in the citizens' interest.

'We will talk again somewhere around March next year or towards the end of the year, to see how things stand as we approach the rotation. I am sceptical, because I have seen this film and it was not that long ago. I saw the film in 2022-2023 and I did not like it and it was not in Romania's interest. Let us speak plainly: the 2023 rotation was not in the citizen's interest. Look at what happened after 2023,' Kelemen Hunor argued.

According to him, regardless of whether there is a government rotation or not, 'a new prime minister must go before Parliament with a programme.'

'What will be written in that governing programme, today we do not know,' Kelemen Hunor added.

Referring to this year's budget, the UDMR leader said that in the area of investment the necessary funds are secured both to attract money from the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) and to proceed with major investments.

'On the other side, when it comes to administrative spending, staff and salaries, I believe it will be a balanced budget. This is an area where, of course, we are forced, there is nothing we can do, to pay the interest, which will amount to somewhere, if I am not mistaken, to around 12 billion or over 12 billion euros, over 60 billion lei, which is enormously high for Romania, this means around 3 percent of the GDP. If we did not have this constraint, it would help us enormously, but we have to pay. And this can only be done from the economy, from additional revenues or from another loan, you refinance this deficit. Thus, this will happen, unfortunately, this is a very heavy burden also on the 2026 budget, perhaps the heaviest burden, perhaps Romania's biggest problem from a budgetary point of view, to pay this interest,' he explained.

Asked about the appointment of the heads of intelligence services, he mentioned he had not taken part in any discussions on the matter.

'I did not take part in any discussion, so I do not know. I do not know whether there were discussions, probably there were, I do not know, I cannot confirm, I cannot deny. What I can tell you very clearly is that I did not take part in any discussion about the services. The last discussion I am aware of was last year, in August, when President Dan attended the coalition meeting with the two well-known names - Daniel Zbarcea at the SRI [the Romanian Intelligence Service] and Marius Lazurca at the SIE [the Romanian Foreign Intelligence Service]. After that I did not hear other names, I am not referring to what appeared in the press, on sources, both from the PSD and from the PNL,' Kelemen Hunor added. AGERPRES(RO - writing by: Catalina Matei; EN - writing by: Rodica State)