„If I were to leave, I would have to leave through resignation. Of course, this is also possible, but I wouldn’t do it without an extremely solid motivation, for a public interest,” said President Klaus Iohannis in December. How come Mr. Iohannis does not see the great public interest now.
I was not among those who considered it inappropriate to keep the president in office in December, more precisely strictly until the new leaders took over the leadership of state institutions. In the situation Romania was going through at that time, there needed to be at least one fixed point.
But that period had to be extremely short and it ended with the election of the Senate president and the installation of the new government.
That is, since Christmas. From that moment on, every day Mr. Iohannis spends at Cotroceni Palace is not only useless, but downright toxic.
I am not looking for complex explanations for Mr. Iohannis's staying there. His reign has never been a complex character, but extremely selfish. So I believe this is the key to understanding the extension.
Just as I do not argue that it is an extension without legal basis. It was provided by the Constitutional Court of Romania, in the operative part of the decision that annulled the elections. So it is not about any usurpation or nullity of the internal or external acts of the president.
But the extension of the mandate is extremely problematic from a political and electoral point of view.
Every day that Mr. Iohannis remains in the office of the President of Romania is a source of irritation and radicalization not only for the electorate already loyal to extremists, but also for the majority of Romanians.
The way Mr. Iohannis chose to relate to the people has led Romania to end its constitutional mandates at the lowest level of trust and sympathy since Nicolae Ceaușescu.
The outcome of the vote on November 24, beyond the alleged Russian intrusions, was largely the result of the frustration caused to the electorate by Klaus Iohannis and the collapse of institutions during his mandates.
This ferment of irritation will not diminish until May. On the contrary, I would say. If the 10 years represented the consequence of elections, thus of a democratic game, this bonus is a challenge.
The President remains because it suits him to stay, because he has no other job with the same privileges at least, he remains on public money that he has not understood how to spend decently and transparently, he remains even though all conditions exist for the prerogatives, except for convening a referendum and dissolving Parliament, to be temporarily taken over in the best conditions.
The person who feels challenged retaliates as best they can, and the vote in May is at hand. It's no use telling them that a toothache doesn't get treated by cutting off the hand. Rarely does the rational argument break through the dense emotional curtain.
So if Mr. Iohannis is looking for a public interest to resign, it is enough to look a bit towards the country, over the press, including international press, over social media, over sociological research. I'm not risking to appeal to common sense, but I think a bit of reason should still shine in the palace.
He would leave behind a very serious and trustworthy interim president, Ilie Bolojan, and would free the electoral campaign, public debate, and even the May elections from the disturbance that his despised persona has become.
And, ironically, it might be Mr. Iohannis's last chance to prove wrong those who accuse him of not caring at all about the country and its future.