President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday left open the door for his eventual resignation, saying he would step down if there was “major public interest.”
Mr. Iohannis is staying in the post longer than his mandate after the Constitutional Court canceled the presidential elections two days before a runoff after intelligence reports revealed interference from a ‘foreign state’ identified as Russia by the U.S. in favor of a candidate with EU, NATO skeptic views.
Romania’s Constitution says the country’s president remains in his or post until a president-elect is sworn in.
Romania’s government will set a new date for presidential elections, likely in the spring.
The president said that he believes that the next government should organize presidential elections.
“I can’t leave. How can I leave if the Constitution tells me that I have to stay?” he responded to a journalist asking if he planned to quit after his mandate officially expires on Dec. 21.
“If I were to leave, I would only do it by resigning. (But) I wouldn’t do it without an extreme, extremely solid motivation. And I would do it only if there were a major public interest,” Iohannis said on Wednesday evening in Brussels.
The Save Romanian Union on Wednesday demanded the resignation of Iohannis and the heads of Romania’s intelligence agencies as a condition of them entering the coalition government.
- “I have noticed in the public space all kinds of interpretations. The Constitution, on this point, is very clear and this situation is expressly provided for in Article 83.
- It is not an interference on my part in constitutional affairs, but it is an article of the Constitution that the mandate ends when the new president is sworn in. Simple, no room for interpretation.
- The CCR did not extend my mandate, as some politicians erroneously convey, who probably did not have time to read this article although it has only one line. The CCR stressed that this article exists and it is applied. The CCR said, careful, that it is the law and the law applies.
- I can’t leave. How can I leave if the Constitution tells me that I have to stay? It is not a choice,” Klaus Iohannis claimed.
Speaking about the option of his resignation, requested by USR, for example, Klaus Iohannis said that he would resign “only if there was a major public interest, which otherwise cannot be resolved”:
- “If I were to leave, I would have to resign. Or to resign, of course, this is also possible, but I would not do it without an extreme, extremely solid motivation for a public interest. Not (merely) for the interest of a politician who wants to stand up against me.
- I would only do it if there were a major public interest, which otherwise cannot be solved.
- So things are constitutionally clear, legally clear. But, obviously, we are in electoral campaign after electoral campaign and many politicians try to convey these issues to make it seem that they are the saviors of the nation.”
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