The president of a European Union (EU) country that saw its top court overturn the last presidential election has decided to resign rather than face impeachment led by populist parties. Romania‘s President Klaus Iohannis announced his resignation on Monday, February 10, stating that he wished to avoid a crisis.
Last month, three populist and conservative opposition parties filed a motion to impeach Iohannis. The Romanian parliament was set to vote on the issue, and there is speculation that other parties may support the motion and grant it a majority vote due to Iohannis’s unpopularity.
Senate speaker Ilie Bolojan, leader of the Romanian Liberal Party, will serve as interim president until the presidential election is rerun in May.
The resignation and threats of impeachment come after the Romanian Constitutional Court annulled last year’s presidential election, which saw populist Călin Georgescu, a critic of NATO, advance toward a second-round victory. Romanian intelligence claimed that Georgescu had benefitted from an influence campaign on the social media platform TikTok, leaving speculation that the campaign may have been linked to Russia.
Romania’s new presidential elections will be held on May 4 and May 18, and polling shows Georgescu leading with 37 percent of the votes in the first round—far ahead of the 22.94 percent he won in the first round of the annulled election.
