PM-designate Muresan: Next week will be the most important test of the PSD's pro-European stance

Prime Minister-designate Siegfried Muresan said on Thursday that next week in Parliament will be the most important test of the Social Democratic Party's (PSD) pro-European stance, when the party will have to choose between voting for "a responsible pro-European Government" or remaining "alongside the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR).""The moment of truth is coming for the PSD. The PSD has been telling us for years that it is a pro-European party. Next week will be the most important test of the PSD's pro-European stance, to see whether it votes for a responsible pro-European Government that we are proposing for the country or whether it remains alongside the AUR. The truth is that the PSD's decision will be important for Romania and we have been in a period of instability and political crisis for almost six months, created, in fact, by the PSD, which was part of the Bolojan Government but brought down this Government, and now we can end this political crisis by voting in the Government next week. And of all the parties, it is clear that the PSD, which initiated this crisis, which filed the no-confidence motion together with AUR, which led to the Bolojan Government being brought down and which has kept the country in a state of instability in recent months, bears the greatest political responsibility of all the parties and they will have to face a test of truth," Muresan said on Radio Romania Actualitati.He added that the Social Democrats' actions are what matter, not their statements.The Prime Minister-designate was asked whether he hoped PSD President Sorin Grindeanu would send a message to his party's MPs to vote for the Muresan Government, or whether he expected individual votes from MPs other than those from the National Liberal Party (PNL), the Save Romania Union (USR) and the Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania (UDMR)."MPs from all parties are free to vote. There are also unaffiliated MPs and so on. The number of votes we still need - we currently have 170 votes, but we still do not have an absolute majority - is not impossible to reach. As for the PSD, I want to be very clear. We, the National Liberal Party, did not like it when other parties tried to divide the PNL in recent months and I will not do this with the PSD. I will behave fairly towards the PSD, meaning I will engage in dialogue with the elected president of the PSD, Mr Sorin Grindeanu, and with the PSD leadership. I will not try to go behind Mr Grindeanu's back to seek individual votes within the PSD. I would not like this to be done in my own party and I will not do it to other parties either. I am aware that the PSD has historically been a monolithic party that has acted in a single direction, which is why I believe the party leadership's decision will be important and we will engage in dialogue and discuss with the party as a whole, officially, not in bits and pieces," he said.