Romania: President Klaus Iohannis announces resignation
Klaus Iohannis was supposed to have stepped down in December, but the annulment of the 2024 presidential election led to an extension of his time in office. Wrongly so, according to Romania's far-right parties, who have called for his impeachment on the grounds that the maximum ten-year term has been exceeded. The liberal USR party backed the motion and now Iohannis has announced his resignation to forestall a parliamentary vote on his impeachment. The move elicits a mixed response from the press.
Major achievements in foreign policy
For Deutsche Welle's Romanian service, two moments stand out when looking back on Iohannis' ten years in office:
“In February 2022, when he decided without hesitation that Romania must stand unconditionally by Ukraine and its allies. And in November 2024, when, based on data he received from the Allies, he convened the Supreme Defence Council to find out what had happened in the first round [of the presidential election], because the Romanian secret service had initially remained silent about the situation. Iohannis kept the country on a Westwards course - no easy task in a region where Russia is causing unrest, disrupting the compasses of neighbouring states and seducing or buying politicians.”
Chronic sluggishness
G4Media.ro takes a much more critical view of Iohannis:
“His political legacy is the dangerous rise of extremism and populism and the advance of parties advocating Romania's exit from the EU and Nato. What's more, Romania came first in another area under Klaus Iohannis' leadership: the annulment of a presidential election as a result of alleged Russian interference. The fact that he remained in office – as decreed by the Constitutional Court – infuriated part of the electorate, for whom he had lost his legitimacy as president. ... Of all the presidents Romania has had since the fall of communism he stood out for his absence, his lack of interest in the country and his chronic sluggishness in office. ... He no doubt mistook the presidency for a cushy job as the mayor of a small provincial town.”
The country needs a fresh start
For the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung this shows how the controversial cancellation of the presidential election is still rocking Romanian politics:
“Although Iohannis likes to present himself to the outside world as a clean guy, he is part of the country's political caste. He quickly adjusted to the PSD being in power and integrated himself into its highly corrupt feudal system. Above all, however, Iohannis' role during the first round of elections, which was shrouded in doubt and whose unfavourable result was overturned by the PSD-affiliated Constitutional Court, is far from clear. It is to be hoped that EU and Nato member Romania will finally free itself from the clutches of the old power networks and make a fresh start.”