Chairman of the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR), Kelemen Hunor, believes that the May elections will be a test for the Romanian state institutions, and the investigation into the mercenaries must continue, otherwise the credibility of the institutions will suffer and, even more so, credibility to foreign partners.

„Of course they [the elections, editor’s note] will be fair in terms of everything that means organization on the part of state institutions. What happens in the media space, what happens in social media, it is hard to say. There, of course, the state has certain limits that it cannot cross. But I hope that, in terms of the organization of elections, the electoral campaign will be very ok. It’s a test for the Romanian state. (…) What happened last year with the declaration of zero expenses, I don’t think it will happen again,” the UDMR leader told private broadcaster Digi 24.

Asked whether he thinks that there is a concern among voters in the country, Kelemen Hunor answered that there is „nervousness, anger, concern”.

„On the one hand, of course, those who are the supporters of those former candidates, who are no longer running, because the candidacies of those people have not been validated, of course there is a nervousness. On the other hand, there is also tension among those who voted last year, not necessarily for Georgescu, but with Georgescu, voting against the political mainstream. There is a nervousness, because the explanations came late, perhaps these explanations should have come much sooner, in December, immediately after the annulment of the elections, not necessarily in February, because by then it was known what happened last year, but it was too late. And there is also this insecurity that comes from our political, economic, social circumstances and in an election year this can be speculated by candidates or forces that come and want to change the political regime,” explained Kelemen Hunor.

In his opinion, the mercenaries’ preparations „were tolerated or neglected”.

„They were somehow tolerated or they were neglected. I don’t know which is the best word, because, at least as far as I’m concerned, I came to the following conclusion: a lot of things were known, but those who had the responsibility, first of all the former president, thought: ‘in the polls we see that it’s at 5-7%, people vote, there’s nothing to be seen, we go over this, we say that we have this extreme zone and we move on’. They didn’t realize there’s something much more important here. If you go with hundreds, thousands of mercenaries from Romania’s armed forces, actually from the army, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the gendarmerie and so on, the SPP, you can’t do it without the higher-ups knowing. To come back from this mission in Romania with money, with all sorts of things that, if they enter the country, must have been seen by someone. So, from this point of view, it was either negligence or complicity, I don’t know. But I think that the investigation cannot be closed and must continue after the presidential elections, otherwise the credibility of the institutions will suffer and, even more so, the credibility with external partners of all kinds, not only the European Union, all that our external partners mean. So, you have to prove either that it was not complicity, it was negligence, or, if it was complicity, then you have to come and punish those who were involved.. I certainly can’t say more, because I have no data, I have no information, however, at this scale, with the number of soldiers who left, it is out of the question it is not known,” the UDMR leader further affirmed.

Kelemen Hunor emphasized that the new president must encourage and help justice to work.

„The president cannot solve, because the president does not conduct investigations, the president does not draw conclusions, does not give verdicts, but he has to push the institutions from behind with all the force, with all the power, with all the help to do their job. And I believe that Ilie Bolojan is doing this, at least since he took over the position of interim president of Romania, a lot of things have happened,” added the UDMR leader.

AGERPRES