Ludovic Orban: I have been forced to leave party where I spent my entire mature life

Former Liberal leader Ludovic Orban announced on Tuesday that he has resigned from the party because he has remained loyal to the people who put their hopes in the National Liberal Party (PNL), where room has been made, he says, for 'lies', 'stupidity', 'betrayal', 'cowardice'.

"The main reason why I decided to resign from the PNL today is that I am loyal to the people who put their hopes in us. (...) The colleagues from PNL have committed a serious betrayal, the most serious infringement of the rules in a democracy. (...) Today, is a crucial day for me, a day when I was simply forced to leave the party in which I spent my entire mature life. It is a decision I make with great difficulty, because in PNL I have the most friends, people with whom I fought, with whom I suffered, with whom I fought to support liberal ideas, to prevent the "red plague" from leading Romania and to offer Romania the chance to real development," Orban declared at the PNL headquarters.

He added that he made this decision because society, interpersonal relationships can only be based on values, on moral principles, which allow people to partner up, to communicate, to respect each other and, above all, to respect what they promise.

"Almost all the things I believe in are no longer found in the PNL leadership today, all the things I hated have wormed in - lies, stupidity, cowardice, servitude, laziness, lack of political ownership," Orban said.