Allies and critics react to Romanian president Klaus Iohannis’ resignation
Romanian president Klaus Iohannis announced his resignation on Monday, February 10, arguing that he aims to spare the country from the process of an ongoing unnecessary motion to remove him.
Iohannis remained president despite the conclusion of his mandate due to the cancelled presidential elections of November-December 2024. New elections are scheduled in May 2025, and many in the coalition government, made up of the center-left Social Democratic and the center-right National Liberal Party and the Hungarian minority party UDMR, argued that Iohannis had become a political burden. His unpopularity was also weighing down the coalition candidate, Crin Antonescu, according to them.
In the far-right, sovereignist camp, the resignation was taken as a victory. The president of far-right party AUR, George Simion, welcomed "the departure of the usurper" and claimed that this is the victory of those who supported his removal from office.
"Klaus Iohannis has just resigned from office! The worst and most hated president in Romania’s history. If he hadn’t resigned, he would have been suspended by Parliament and removed. The second round of elections must be rerun urgently," Simion wrote on X. He alluded to the rerun of the second round of the presidential elections from last November, which were ultimately annulled by the Constitutional Court.
Bucharest mayor Nicușor Dan, a reformist and independent candidate for the presidency, offered a short comment regarding the resignation. "Klaus Iohannis has left. People’s dissatisfaction with the political class remains. Let’s build hope for the future of society together,” he said.
Crin Antonescu, the candidate designated by the PSD-PNL-UDMR coalition for the presidency, also reacted. He said that Iohannis’ decision to resign "was a wise one" and that there are no "reasons to dramatize." He said that the president of the Senate will take over as interim president, and the government remains stable. "It is a situation preferable to the initiation of a suspension process. The president’s decision was a wise one," Antonescu also stated.
Elena Lasconi, president of reformist party Union Save Romania and second-placed candidate in the cancelled elections, said that the resignation “comes very late.” She added that it also “doesn’t provide us with answers to the questions that have been troubling this country for two months: why were the elections annulled, how do we protect ourselves from Russian interference, who defends us from manipulation, can we guarantee the security of the next election? After 10 years with Iohannis at Cotroceni, unfortunately, and I say this as someone who once believed in him, Romania is more vulnerable than ever.”
The Bucharest stock market remained stable, albeit dormant, after the announcement. Minor clashes between far-right protesters and the police occurred in central Bucharest.
(Photo source: presidency.ro)
