The Budapest government is very spontaneous in the sense that it offers statements wherever it comes to it because they want to be perceived as reactive, Romanian Embassy deputy chief of mission Mihaela Pop said. She explained in a meeting with the Romanian press at Budapest that the statements made by deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen regarding the Hungarian minority in Romania is part of a “discourse that we are used to and the statement was not surprising.”

There is always a tendency to introduce an ethnic issue in a matter that finds Romania to be blamed, the Romanian official said. She said that one of the aims of the current government is to remove Jobbik from the Parliament, which means a new dimension to the political discourse. Pop said that between two neighboring countries it is normal to have a flow of communications, of problems.

The reaction of the new government is part of a new attitude promoted by the executive. Regarding Schengen and Romania and Bulgaria’s adhesion to it, Mihaela Pop said that Hungary supported Romania by all means possible but “unfortunately the political context of the expansion was much stronger”.

The acknowledgement that Romania complied with all its obligations for Schengen leaves the country with a small maneuver space, Pop said. She said that the political aims should be managed by Bucharest authorities.