Romania: a new president, a new era?

The long-term mayor of Sibiu, Klaus Iohannis, was the unexpected winner of the presidential runoff in Romania on 16 November 2014. For a long time he has been an activist representing the German national minority and became a candidate of the two main Romanian centre-right parties. He won a high level of support, garnering 54,4% of the vote to defeat the front-runner, Prime Minister Victor Ponta representing the Social Democratic Party. What decided on Iohannis’s victory was the high mobilisation of the public (turnout reached 64%) in response to the fact that Victor Ponta’s government organised the election poorly for the Romanian diaspora. Furthermore, being de facto outside the political mainstream, Iohannis gave rise to the hope that his style of ruling would be different, that he will combat corruption and modernise the state. He will be an active player on the political scene, since he will be making efforts to pave the way for centre-right parties to take power. He will also uphold the strongly pro-Atlantic and pro-European approach in foreign policy.

ESO: Background information: Romanian presidential election, 2014 http://www.europeansources.info/record/romanian-presidential-election-2014/

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