Romanian President Klaus Iohannis announced his resignation on Monday after the Parliament’s leadership decided to put the motion of suspension to a vote on Tuesday, with high chances of passing.
The President announced that he is resigning starting Wednesday, to spare Romania from the crisis that would have meant a recall referendum and to prevent his country from becoming a laughingstock.
It is a historic moment, as it is the first time a Romanian president resigns.
The Constitution states that the interim will be taken over by the Senate President, Ilie Bolojan.
Resignation statement
"Today, the procedure for the suspension of the president was set in motion in the Romanian Parliament.
It is an unnecessary step because, anyway, in a few months, I will leave office after the new president is elected.
It is an unfounded step because I have never, I repeat, never violated the Constitution.
And it is a harmful step, because everyone loses from this, nobody gains.
In a few days, the Romanian Parliament will vote on my suspension and Romania will enter into a crisis. Romania will enter into a crisis because the referendum for the president's dismissal will be triggered," warned the still-serving president.
"It will have internal and external effects. Internally, the referendum will be eminently negative.
Society will be divided, some will agree, others will not. The entire discussion will be focused only on the negative. The whole society will be in turmoil.
There will be no more talk about the upcoming presidential elections. There will be no discussion about how Romania will move forward. The candidates will not even be able to present their ideas in this negative mix.
Externally, the effects will be long-lasting and very negative. No one among our partners will understand why Romania is dismissing its president when, in fact, the procedure for electing the new president has already begun.
No one will understand the point of such an action when the current president will leave office anyway. In simpler terms, we will be the laughingstock of the world.
To spare Romania and the Romanian citizens from this crisis, from this unnecessary and negative development, I resign from the position of President of Romania. I will leave office tomorrow, on February 12.
God bless Romania!" announced the president.
The suspension procedure had high chances of success
After the Opposition's request was already rejected twice, on procedural grounds, this time, POT, AUR, SOS, and USR gathered 178 signatures, and the suspension proceeded on Monday with the vote of all parties in the Joint Standing Bureau of Parliament.
The signing parties theoretically do not have the votes to pass such a request in the plenary session, as 233 votes are required, and these parties only have 215 votes in the two Chambers.
However, it seems that there are enough coalition parliamentarians willing to support the suspension, given that the vote is secret.