Romanian president Klaus Iohannis announced on Saturday, June 23, that he would run for a new term next year.

He made the announcement in Sibiu, the city where he was mayor for several years before being elected president. He was in Sibiu to meet former schoolmates, as they got together to celebrate 40 years since they finished high school.

“I’ve made an important decision and I want to communicate it to you now, here, this beautiful morning. I am firmly committed to running for a new term as President of Romania,” Iohannis said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w3yWpK9w7I

Asked why he decided to make this announcement on this day, the president said the Romanian political scene had entered a rather troubled phase and that polls show that many Romanians no longer trust the political class. Thus, he thought that such an announcement might encourage some of them “to go forward.” He also said he believes the ruling Social Democratic Party (PSD) didn’t get the news very well.

The president also referred to the PSD leader Liviu Dragnea, who was recently sentenced to three years and six months in prison for instigation to abuse of office. He said Dragnea should get out of politics “for good,” and “disappear” from the Romanian public life.

“So, Dragnea, after the second conviction, should simply disappear from Romanian public life. That would be the case in any country, even with an incipient democracy,” Iohannis said.

“But the part that seems to me to be a bit more serious is that the PSD does not realize that it has to send Dragnea home. Basically, we are now in the totally inappropriate and unfortunate phase in which a whole party and the largest party in Romania constitutes a group of pressure or a group of lobby for a criminal.”

Liviu Dragnea said last Friday that he would continue as president of the Chamber of Deputies and party leader despite the conviction to three and a half years of jail time ruled against him by the High Court of Cassation and Justice. Moreover, his party unanimously decided to support him.

In early March, the local media reported that Klaus Iohannis is being considered for the position of president of the European Council. The mandate of Donald Tusk, the current president of the European Council, ends in December 2019 when Iohannis also reaches the end of his first mandate as President of Romania.

Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com