After Magyar Union UDMR leader Kelemen Hunor (in picture) backed Romanian PM Victor Ponta at the consultation with president Traian Basescu, before the official naming of the incumbent PM as the head of the new Government, things seem to have taken a different turn. With the National Liberal Party (PNL) being the first to officially say the Magyar Union will not be part of the governing team, the Prime Minister Ponta has now also changed his statement. Immediately after the elections, he said negotiations were ongoing with the Magyar Union to create a governing union. However, after yesterday's meeting between the two heads of the Social Liberal Union (USL), Victor Ponta and Crin Antonescu of the PNL, an agreement has been reached to not give the Magyar Union seats in the new Government.

In its turn, the Union announced it will vote against the new Cabinet. Kelemen Hunor said it was the first time when something agreed with the party has changed in a matter of days.

“We will enter a constructive opposition, and of course, over the years we will discuss, talk to each other, analyze the projects on education, culture, changing the constitution, changing the development regions […]. We could not get over the decision made by PNL,” said the UDMR president

The UDMR had been a constant presence in Romania's Governments over the last 20 years, irrespective of who had won the elections. “After 23 years, it is for the first time when we talk about something and shift it over a couple of days, it is not very pleasant, but I am not disappointed,” said the UDMR leader.

The USL has a comfortable majority in the Parliament however and is most likely to pass the new Government without the votes from UDMR. Kelemen Hunor said he could not see any plausible reasons for the UDMR not to be part of the new Government: “The only rational argument was and is that we started to build something together 20 years ago and we did it with a huge effort on all sides, so we should have continued on the same road […],” he said.

Prime Minister Victor Ponta, officially appointed by the president yesterday (December 17 ), will present his new cabinet on Wednesday (December 19 ) at noon. A parliamentary vote will follow – the USL has 395 seats in the new Parliament, which will be the largest ever in the history of post-communist Romania, with 588 MPs.

Corina Chirileasa, corina@romania-insider.com

(photo source: UDMR)