Elected to fight corruption, Klaus Iohannis resigns after a decade in office.

By Catalina Mihai

BUCHAREST – President Klaus Iohannis announced on Monday that he is resigning and has submitted his resignation to the heads of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies to avoid the debate on the suspension request scheduled for Tuesday.

Elected with the hope that he would continue the fight against corruption and bring a new approach to foreign policy, Klaus Iohannis has become, after ten years in office, the first president of Romania to resign.

With low popularity and facing strong opposition from the three extremist parties in Parliament, Klaus Iohannis resigned after several MPs from the pro-European USR (Renew) party decided to sign the suspension request initiated by POT, the party that supported the pro-Russian presidential candidate Călin Georgescu.

Moreover, USR leader Elena Lasconi, who would have entered the second round alongside Georgescu, repeatedly said that the elections should not have been annulled.

Lasconi declared on Monday that she was pleased that “the pressure exerted by USR in Parliament woke Iohannis up from his slumber, and we will not stop here.”

In his Monday statement, Iohannis called the suspension process “pointless” and “unfounded,” arguing that he had never violated the Constitution. He also described it as a “harmful” action, saying, “because in this situation, everyone loses, and no one wins.”

Klaus Iohannis warned that Romania would have entered a crisis if a dismissal referendum had been triggered. He also pointed to negative international repercussions: “None of our  partners will understand why Romania is dismissing its President when the process of electing a new President has already begun.”

After the annulment of the first round in November 2024, the government scheduled the elections to be resumed on 4 May for the first round and 18 May for the runoff.

Starting Wednesday, Senate president and interim leader of the PNL, Ilie Bolojan, will serve as Romania’s interim president for 90 days.

Analyst Remus Ștefureac believes that the resignation is “one less burden” for the governing coalition’s (Social Democrats, Liberals, and the ethnic Hungarian party UDMR) presidential candidate, Crin Antonescu.

PSD Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu assured that “all necessary measures” have been taken to prevent financial markets from being affected by the political crisis.

Meanwhile, the Mayor of Bucharest, Nicușor Dan, who has already announced his candidacy for the May elections, emphasized public dissatisfaction: “Klaus Iohannis is gone. But people’s discontent with the political class remains.”

The far-right claims credit for Iohannis’s departure through their actions.

“Victory for the people of Romania – Klaus Iohannis resigned! Now, it’s time to return to ‘rule of law’ – resume the second round of elections!” wrote Călin Georgescu on X.

“This is your victory. Now it’s time to restore the second round, posted AUR (ECR) leader George Simion on Facebook.

At the same time, Simion announced that his party would submit a motion of no confidence against the government. “Anyone who refuses to sign the motion is clearly a traitor,” ECR vice president said.

Source: Euractiv.com