UDMR president Kelemen Hunor said on Friday evening that President Nicușor Dan has handled talks with the political parties on forming a new government in a way that closely resembles former prime minister Ilie Bolojan. On B1 TV he described Bolojan as a stubborn man and said Dan is similarly stubborn, while noting that the presidency gives him greater legitimacy than a prime minister has, whoever the prime minister is.
Kelemen said Dan knows the target and pursues it without easing off, and that he learns along the way. He added that there is no faculty for becoming a country’s president and that, if he was not mistaken, Dan’s time at the city hall worked the same way: the first year was for preparation and for understanding every problem before stating a solution.
He said his experience over the year and a half since Nicușor Dan became president has been mostly positive, above all because the head of state keeps his direction. Kelemen described that direction as Euro-Atlantic and transatlantic. He said he would not call it pro-European, because he does not feel pro-European; he feels European. The UDMR leader also said Dan maintains his line in foreign policy and supports Romania’s closer ties with Western partners.
In the same programme, Kelemen spoke briefly about how much Romania’s relationship with the United States matters amid international tensions. He said Romania must cooperate with the American administration whoever is in charge, because the administration remained after Obama and after Biden and will remain after Trump. He said Romania on its own does not cope.
Kelemen said the world is highly conflictual, international relations are being rearranged, and Romania sits near Russia with two wars, in the Middle East and between Russia and Ukraine. According to him, no state in the region manages alone, neither Hungary, nor Slovakia, nor Poland, nor the Baltic countries, and Romania needs the Americans. From that point of view, he said, he appreciates what Nicușor Dan is doing.