BUCHAREST: Romanian President Klaus Iohannis will step down on February 12, leading local media reported his statement as saying. "T...
BUCHAREST: Romanian President Klaus Iohannis will step down on February 12, leading local media reported his statement as saying.
"Today, the Romanian parliament has launched the procedure to remove the president from office," he said, calling this demarche unjustified. "In a few days, the Romanian parliament will vote on my resignation, and Romania will be in a state of turmoil because a referendum on the resignation of the president will commence."
Iohannis foresees a division in Romanian society, while no foreign nation will understand why this step is being taken if preparations for the presidential elections are already underway.
"In fact, everyone will mock us," he said. "To save Romania and Romanian citizens from this crisis, from such a pointless and detrimental course of events, I am resigning as president," he said. "I will vacate my position the day after tomorrow, on February 12th."
Why impeach the outgoing president?
After parliamentary opposition, the Youth Party initiated impeachment for the third time, and the parliamentary leadership decided to begin discussing the demand on Tuesday.
Formally, the opposition is contesting Iohannis' decision confirmed by the Constitutional Court to remain in office until the new president is sworn in, even though his term expired on December 21.
In Romania, a conflict is escalating between the globalists led by Iohannis and the nationalists who are gaining power. It was triggered by the cancellation of the presidential election results, whose first round was held on November 24.
The president's resignation is supported by the opposition in the Romanian parliament - the Alliance for Romanian Unity, S.O.S. Romania, the Youth Party, as well as the center-right Union for Romania’s Salvation. The president's resignation is opposed by the so-called pro-European parties of the ruling coalition - the Social Democrats, the National Liberals (NLP), and the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania.
After the resignation of the president, Senate Speaker Ilie Bolozhan (NLP) becomes the acting head of state.
About the presidential elections in Romania
On November 24, 2024, the first round of the presidential election was held in Romania, where independent candidate Calin Georgescu won with 22.94% of the vote. Elena Lasconi, leader of the center-right Union for Romania's Salvation, placed second with 19.18%. They were expected to be rivals in the second round of elections on December 8.
However, on December 6, the Constitutional Court of Romania annulled the results of the entire election and ruled to hold the polls again, including the election campaign. It also confirmed that Iohannis would continue as president until a new head of state was sworn in after intelligence agencies declassified documents, revealing that Georgescu had illegally financed his election campaign, exposed hacker attacks on the digital election infrastructure, and claimed that Russia had allegedly carried out "hybrid warfare" against the state.
Georgescu and Lasconi condemned the decision of the Constitutional Court and demanded to resume the elections from the point they were interrupted, or hold a second round of voting. The government set new dates for the presidential election re-run on May 4 and 18.
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