What is happening to Klaus Iohannis now is the end of power, as it happened to all former presidents.
In his specific case, it is the end of the luck of the luckiest among Romanian politicians, after 10 years in which this incredible luck propelled him and kept him at the top of the state despite some lamentable mandates.
Mr. Iohannis encounters the misfortune that power ultimately comes to an end.
Most likely, judging by the initial statements regarding the bill meant to allow Mr. Iohannis to run independently on the PNL list, Marcel Ciolacu intended for PSD to vote for the regulation. The President cannot be denied a constitutional right to run.
What Mr. Ciolacu seemingly did not anticipate was the huge wave of anger stirred by this intention. Mr. Iohannis's unpopularity has made such a vote carry a huge electoral cost.
Furthermore, since PSD could not provide any rational political explanation for such a gift, the vote would have revealed what we have every reason to believe exists between PSD, PNL, and Mr. Iohannis - an agreement, a power-sharing deal even after 2024, in the name of stability.
Faced with the risk of a very high price, PSD was forced to retreat and unanimously refuse to vote on this bill, using the argument provided by Florin Iordache from the Legislative Council.
Essentially, Mr. Iordache argues that Mr. Iohannis does not need any law to run on the party list, as the 2004 CCR Decision validating the legislative change made for Ion Iliescu exists.
But the opinion of the Legislative Council is not binding. If PNL applies the solution, it may find its list, including Klaus Iohannis, rejected by BEC. Iordache will shrug.
PNL was caught off guard by a PSD that no longer accepted losses as in the case of the merger and common list in June. It feels the full weight of electoral ballast and is astonished to see that the power of Klaus Iohannis is no longer absolute.
The feeling is all the more bitter as Klaus Iohannis continues to behave with no respect for the people and the party. While PNL is on tenterhooks to secure his future position, an electoral one, he boards the same controversial, much-discussed, and irritating pharaonic plane, much to the people's annoyance. An irritation that is bound to also affect PNL.
PNL's move at BEC, called to explain the notion of independence, is a desperate attempt with little chance of generating the expected clarifications.
The fact that the representative of the Liberals was absent from the clarifying meeting at BEC is either, in the same vein, ridiculous, or a way to buy time to apply additional persuasion methods.
The end of luck is like a snowball.
After 10 years when no one dared even to breathe in your presence, now in just a few months Mr. Iohannis missed NATO, missed the EU, and is about to miss a miserable, probably from his point of view, internal office.
Klaus Iohannis's power is peeling off like an onion, sheet by sheet.
One by one, all those who excelled in flattery and sycophancy will begin to crack. In PNL, there are already nervous voices due to the obvious electoral damage of PNL. PSD has distanced itself, most likely, and BEC will probably wash its hands, unlikely not to change CCR's direction.
There comes a day when power ends, and great politicians live with the thought of that moment. But Mr. Iohannis, according to his own statement, is just a political operator. One that immense luck has abandoned.