The presidential elections are important not only for Romania’s European future, but also for the European Union as a whole, and an anti-European president would isolate Romania, PNL MEP Siegfried Muresan declared on Wednesday in Strasbourg.

„The presidential elections in Romania are important not only for Romania’s European future, but also for the European Union as a whole, due to Romania’s importance in the region, for the support given to Ukraine, due to the fact that the Romanian president participates in European Council meetings and plays an active role in European integration processes, due to the fact that, in recent years, despite internal difficulties, Romania has always been led in a pro-European spirit,” Muresan told a press conference in the European Parliament.

„For all these reasons, the outcome of the elections in Romania is essential for the European Union as a whole, and a pro-European president will be able to achieve a lot for Romania on the European level,” he said.

Muresan stressed that, in return, an anti-European president, who „violates and does not respect European rules,” „will isolate Romania, and Romanian citizens will have something to lose, perhaps even very concretely through the suspension of European funds.”

„European rules are very clear: you violate European values, you will have European funds suspended. We do not want this to happen, but we have a duty to tell people that a president who violates European rules, European values, European laws, risks the suspension of European funds. People need to know this, in order to be able to decide with full knowledge of the facts,” he warned.

He congratulated the PNL and the UDMR for „finding the strength to support the pro-European candidate immediately after the first round of the presidential elections.”

„Of course, there may be differences between the parties that did not support Mr. Nicusor Dan before the first round. But all these differences are much smaller than what separates the EPP member parties from the anti-European, extremist, populist, radical candidate named George Simion. Therefore, appreciation for the courageous, correct and quick decision taken by the two EPP member parties in Romania,” Muresan said.

„Whoever claims to be pro-European must show this through actions, not words, and must show it especially in difficult times. That is why the EPP President (Manfred Weber) has made it very clear that the decision of the Social Democratic Party of Romania not to have a clear position in supporting the pro-European candidate is incomprehensible. We hope that they will think again and understand the risk that an anti-European president represents for Romania,” he added.

The European People’s Party (EPP) Group in the European Parliament condemned on Tuesday the PSD’s decision not to support the pro-European candidate, Nicusor Dan, in the second round of the presidential elections and at the same time supported the decision of the PNL and UDMR to offer their support for him.

The PSD „failed to show its commitment to European values,” the EPP Group said.

„The decision of the Social Democratic Party of Romania is simply unacceptable. I expect a clear commitment from them to support the only pro-European candidate. In the face of growing extremism throughout Europe, there is no room for political games,” declared Manfred Weber, president of the EPP Group in the EP.

AGERPRES