Photo Credit: Getty Images
Romania's outgoing centrist president, Klaus Iohannis, resigned on Monday to preempt an impeachment attempt by hard-right opposition parties in parliament. The resignation comes after Romania, an EU and NATO member bordering Ukraine, was plunged into institutional chaos last year when a far-right NATO critic won the first round of the presidential election.
After accusations of Russian interference - denied by Moscow - Romania’s top court voided the entire election.
With the two rounds of the election set to be rerun on May 4 and May 18, Romania’s top court had said Lohannis, whose second and last term expired on December 21, would stay on until his successor was elected. The outgoing Iohannis, a pro-EU liberal, had said he would stay on in office until a successor was elected in May.
But that had been strongly criticised by far-right politicians and their supporters, who had performed well in the first round of the vote in December. But in January, three far-right opposition parties, which control around 35% of parliament seats, filed a motion to impeach Iohannis.
With the motion up for a vote, and Iohannis deeply unpopular, analysts have said some lawmakers from mainstream pro-European parties could give the hard-right’s impeachment effort the required majority.
The three hard-right groupings, whose support has risen since Georgescu’s surprise win, had used their campaign against Iohannis as a reason to stage protests and seize the political agenda.
Their criticism had inspired tens of thousands of Romanians to take to the streets last month in protest against the election's cancellation.
Opposition lawmakers had launched a motion in parliament again on Monday to move for the president's suspension.
“The request will have consequences both domestically and abroad,” Iohannis told reporters. “To spare Romania this pointless and negative crisis… I am resigning from the president’s office.”
Senate speaker Ilie Bolojan, head of the Liberal Party, a member of the ruling coalition, will take over as interim president with limited powers until the election.
