Romanian President Klaus Iohannis announced his resignation on Monday after a procedure to impeach him was launched amid anger over the cancellation of a presidential election last year.
The country’s top court called off a vote slated for December after claims of Russian meddling before the first round which was won by a little-known, far-right candidate.
Pressure had been growing on Iohannis, a pro-European politician who had said he would remain in office until a new election is held in May.
Lawmakers on Monday launched a procedure to impeach Iohannis, following two previous opposition attempts to start the process.
‘In order to spare Romania and the Romanian citizens from crisis… I resign from the office of president of Romania,’ Iohannis said, adding that he would officially stand down on Wednesday.
‘In a few days, the Romanian Parliament will vote on my suspension and Romania will go into crisis… This whole endeavour will have effects internally and unfortunately also externally,’ he added in his address.
He insisted he had ‘never violated the constitution.’
Romania’s far right welcomed the resignation. A rally of hundreds of supporters in Bucharest saw clashes with police.
Calin Georgescu, who won the first round of the presidential election before the vote was annulled, called Iohannis’s resignation a “victory for the people of Romania.’
‘Now, it’s time to return to ‘rule of law’—resume’ the 2nd round of elections!’ he wrote on X.
The leader of the far-right AUR party, George Simion, hailed what he said was the people’s “victory.”
Romania’s far-right gained an unprecedented third of the votes in the December parliamentary elections amid anger over soaring inflation and fears over Russia’s war in neighbouring Ukraine.
Last month, tens of thousands of Romanians took part in protests called by the far right criticising the vote cancellation. Some demanded the resignation of Iohannis, who is expected to be temporarily replaced by Senate president and liberal leader Ilie Bolojan.
‘We are still living in a period with a strong appetite for charismatic populism and anti-system messages, but at least now there is one less target for them,’ political analyst Radu Magdin told AFP.
Iohannis, 65, has been Romania’s president since 2014 and had navigated several political crises.
‘President Iohannis looked photogenic in the pictures. However, he was massively absent from the public view, and what he promised—an educated and normal Romania—was not realised,’ Magdin added.
Cancellations of elections are rare in the European Union, and it plunged the eastern European country into crisis, with Georgescu calling the move a “formalised coup d’etat.”
A fresh first round of presidential elections will now take place on May 4, with a second on May 18 if no candidate wins more than 50 per cent of the vote.
Romania’s constitutional court cancelled the election after intelligence documents released by the president’s office listed “aggressive Russian hybrid actions,” including cyberattacks.
The documents also detailed the massive promotion of Georgescu on social media in the run-up to the vote.
Georgescu, a past admirer of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a NATO critic who has recently reframed himself as “ultra pro” US President Donald Trump, has denied any links to Moscow.
