February 10, 2025 UPDATE 3
A roundup of local and international news.
Newsroom, 10.02.2025, 20:00
A roundup of local and international news.
BUCHAREST – Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis resigned on Monday, a day before an impeachment vote in Parliament, demanded by the opposition parties. Iohannis said that the resignation would take effect on February 12 and that he made the decision to step down in a bid to limit the fallout of what he believed would have been a divisive and damaging vote for the nation. At the same time, externally, none of the country’s allies would have understood why Romania was impeaching its president, after, in fact, the procedure for electing a new president had already started, Iohannis also said. His second term expired on December 21, 2024, but was extended by the Constitutional Court with the annulment of the first round of the presidential elections in November. In keeping with the law, Senate speaker and Liberal leader Ilie Bolojan will assume the role of interim president on Wednesday, until the new president is elected. The interim president of Romania can promulgate laws, request their reexamination by the Constitutional Court, appoint and dismiss ministers and serve as supreme commander of the Armed Forces. However, he cannot dissolve Parliament, initiate a referendum and appoint another prime minister.
REACTIONS – The opposition parties in the Bucharest Parliament, which had initiated the procedure to impeach outgoing President Klaus Iohannis, welcomed the latter’s decision to resign. MP Dan Tanasa, with the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) said that Iohannis was in office illegally and that the Romanians no longer wanted him. Also from the opposition, the head of the Save Romania Union (USR), Elena Lasconi, said that the president’s resignation does not offer answers regarding the annulment of last year’s election and that, thorough changes are further needed in the relation between citizens and the state institutions. Representing the governing coalition, the Liberal mayor of Cluj-Napoca, Emil Boc, said that resignation is preferable to impeachment, which would have complicated both the domestic political scene and Romania’s credibility abroad. The Social Democratic mayor of Craiova, Olguţa Vasilescu, pointed out that, as regards the presidential elections, the ruling coalition’s candidate continues to be the former Liberal leader Crin Antonescu. The latter said that Klaus Iohannis’ resignation was a wise decision as it pre-empted the impeachment bid and a referendum. Senate speaker Ilie Bolojan, head of the Liberal Party, a member of the ruling coalition, will take over as interim president with limited powers until the election.
INVESTIGATION – Five people were taken in for questioning following the 15 house searches that Romanian police carried out on Monday in Ilfov, Prahova, Buzau and Arges counties, in the case of the conflict in Urziceni, not far from the capital Bucharest, in which two people died. Also, after a series of searches carried out Monday in Brasov county, another nine people were taken to the police station for questioning. Interior Minister Catalin Predoiu signaled the fact that the involvement of several state structures was needed to combat organized crime and dismantle crime groups. He said that although hundreds of organized crime groups have been dismantled in recent years, they are regenerating, and solving this problem may take years. We remind you that, at the end of last week, two people died and five were injured, following a shooting incident involving over 25 people, members of two families in Urziceni and Prahova.
ECONOMY – An International Monetary Fund delegation concluded its discussions in Bucharest with the main institutions in charge of Romania’s monetary and fiscal policies. It was not an assessment mission, but only a fact-finding one, and PM Marcel Ciolacu assured the IMF experts of the government’s determination to comply with the budget deficit target of 7% of the GDP and to implement the reforms undertaken in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. The IMF made public its latest forecasts regarding the Romanian economy last autumn, when it estimated a 7% deficit for the end of 2025, the same as predicted by the government. However, the IMF’s estimates are more optimistic both as regards the economic growth rate and the inflation. In turn, World Bank officials welcomed the government’s reform plan and the attention paid to investments, noting that Romania is a strong and resilient partner.
SUPERMARKETS – PM Marcel Ciolacu said legislation should be introduced so that all products in major stores should have the same mark-ups. One day ahead of a boycott on supermarkets announced for Monday by the supporters of the former presidential candidate Călin Georgescu, PM Ciolacu presented, in an online post, the Romanian products he had bought. Roughly 800,000 Romanians work in the over 4,500 large stores in the country, and the taxes paid by such chains account for 13% of the revenues to the state budget. Moreover, according to data from the agriculture ministry, 70% of the products in retail stores in Romania are made in Romania. Early this month, customers in several Balkan countries joined a large-scale boycott on supermarkets, amid rising food prices. The protests that started in Croatia have spread to Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia.
KOSOVO – Kosovo’s left-wing nationalist PM Albin Kurti claimed victory in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, saying he was optimistic about forming a new government. Unlike in the previous term, however, his party will not be able to form a parliamentary majority on its own. Kurti and other Kosovo party leaders have made it clear that they have no intention of working together, making it unclear how a ruling coalition could be formed in Pristina.
