The President of Romania

[ShockBlast]

Romanian presidential elections just finished, it was a hard fight.

We had a surprise when the results started rolling in, Romania`s incumbent prime-minister was hammered badly by the mayor of Sibiu - Klaus Werner Johannis who won the elections.

The partial results show around 54, even 55% for Klaus.

YES, an ethnic German is the President of Romania.

At the moment I don`t see anything about it in the international media, in the morning I guess you guys will hear about this in the news.

[Guy]

Seems the Guardian has written a bit about it -- coming somewhat down the page, mind you: http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...nnis-president

Very interesting read of comments by Guardian users.

[hellheaven1987]

Nothing too interesting here though, it is not like Romanians vote the new President because he has anything new to offer.

[Basil II the B.S]

I thought he's a reminder of the Habsburgs but apparently Germans in the region go back even further. Nothing really that big then.

[ShockBlast]

I thought he's a reminder of the Habsburgs but apparently Germans in the region go back even further. Nothing really that big then.

Something like 800 years if not a bit more.

The Hungarian king invited the saxons there to help defend the frontier of the Voivodship of Transylvania, vassal of the Kingdom of Hungary.He`s from Romania`s older German community rather then the newer one.

@hellhaven
Actually he is different, he styled himself as a person from the civil society rather them a full fledged politician but after the first election tour he showed that he is a capable politician, he showed the ability to dodge questions that are better left unanswered, change his topic to better his chances of victory etc.

What makes him different is that this man proved that he is an outstanding administrator when he took the mayorship of the city of Sibiu - or Hermannstadt in german - and in 14 years made an outstanding job in modernising culminating with the city being the cultural capital of Europe.

We barely got partials at 22:00 Romania`s time and I posted at something like 4:30 so the international media didn`t have time to wake up.

[Adar]

I am a quite jaded but his power to elect prosecutors could become a major tool in battling corruption in Romania. I know that the education level in Romania is rising impressively and if corruption can be brought down then Romania may very well be a major success story in the 10s and 20s of the 21st century.

So I am happy with it.

[Basil II the B.S]

Something like 800 years if not a bit more.

The Hungarian king invited the saxons there to help defend the frontier of the Voivodship of Transylvania, vassal of the Kingdom of Hungary.He`s from Romania`s older German community rather then the newer one.

Yeah I had a quick read on wiki. Eastern European history is underrated.

[hellheaven1987]

@hellhaven
Actually he is different, he styled himself as a person from the civil society rather them a full fledged politician but after the first election tour he showed that he is a capable politician, he showed the ability to dodge questions that are better left unanswered, change his topic to better his chances of victory etc.

What makes him different is that this man proved that he is an outstanding administrator when he took the mayorship of the city of Sibiu - or Hermannstadt in german - and in 14 years made an outstanding job in modernising culminating with the city being the cultural capital of Europe.

We barely got partials at 22:00 Romania`s time and I posted at something like 4:30 so the international media didn`t have time to wake up.

And? Are Romanians trying to get an Erdogan to office?

All politicians shout "I would fight corruption" slogan during election, lets see how this dude would reduce it or not first.

[ShockBlast]

And? Are Romanians trying to get an Erdogan to office?

All politicians shout "I would fight corruption" slogan during election, lets see how this dude would reduce it or not first.

Erdogan is a total douchebag.

Klaus already proved he is a man of his word in his reign as mayor of Sibiu for 14 years.

He already started to fight corruption by pushing the parliament to bring up a law that is waiting to be voted for like 2 years.The law is about cutting the sentences for corruption in all of it`s formes.He urged the parliament to bring it up for debate and strike it down.Of course the parliament is controlled by the party of prime minister, the person who raced against him for presidency, but it seems that they will bring the law and repel it.

He also asked for rolling back the immunity enjoyed by all politicians, the president included.He argued that politicians should have immunity for what they vote and what is their opinion when it comes to politics, nothing else.

[hellheaven1987]

Klaus already proved he is a man of his word in his reign as mayor of Sibiu for 14 years.

So was Erdogan the former mayor of Istanbul, so was Ahmadinejad the former mayor of Tehran.

[Roma_Victrix]

In this day and age I don't think it should surprise anyone that someone of an ethnic background that is outside the majority in any country can win an election. Anyone remember this guy, Michael Manley? He was elected twice to serve as the Prime Minister of Jamaica (1972 to 1980 and from 1989 to 1992), which as everyone knows is majority black.

[Stavroforos]

Wait, is this important because he's an ethnic German, or because of his politics? If it's the former then it doesn't seem that interesting but if it's the latter, what makes his politics interesting? What sort of powers does the Romanian President have?

[Dante Von Hespburg]

Thing thing i find most interesting is the seeming issues that the Romanian former government created for those voting abroad to actually cast a vote, in an attempt to retain power (Reading up on some of the articles and comments on them in the guardian link and others).

It seems that it was down to social media and the internet that this was uncovered and thus may have had a symbolic (though realistically slight?) impact on the result, as a citizen/social media & internet triumph over traditional means of control and older media sources.

[ShockBlast]

It`s important because of the way he handles politics.Given the fact that he comes from Transylvania, he doesn`t speak fast and he`s straight to the point and is a very meticulous person.

He lost the first debate on TV but he showed we had what it takes to handle politics - not answer the questions that don`t need to be answered and turn the lines of his competitor in the second debate.

He was the mayor of Sibiu and he is very loved by the citizens of Sibiu, he transformed the city bringing around 10.000 workplaces in Sibiu in his reign as mayor for 14 years.

I see that the real story begins to emerge in the media as well.There were two powerful televisions that demonised him - child traficant, child organ traficant, nazi etc.
But as Dante underlined internet prevailed because of a sudden burst of civism given how Romanian voters outside the country were treated and let`s not forget the notoriety of Klaus himself.
The youth didn`t buy the hole child traficant at all and a massive campaign started online to galvanise the youth and also try to persuade the elderly to vote for Johannis.

The fact that he is an ethnic German is a bonus, he is known outside, he has been decorated by Merkel herself and the workplaces brought to Sibiu are from German and Austrian investors.
With him as president we can achieve much more in terms of attracting German and European investors.He is a serious person who strives to achieve his goals.
He is more akin to a person belonging to civil society rather then a pure breed politician.

I`m glad that Romania sent this strong message of maturity, I hope it will brighten the mood in Bruxelles and serve to stabilise the frontier of the Union.




Here is Klaus singing a bit from Romania`s national anthem.

[Dromikaites]

It seems he managed to push forward two important measures, 1 month before being sworn in.

His party is in the opposition, yet his unexpected success in the elections (1 million votes more than the Prime Minister) scared the government coalition's MPs into striking down a law project which would have granted amnesty to those convicted for corruption.

A short explanation of the context: for the last 11 months the government MPs had refused to vote against that project (which was proposed by them). They had only postponed it (due to public outrage) until after the presidential elections.

Their hope was the current Prime Minister would become president, thus eliminating the risk of the president refusing to validate the law.

The president of Romania can refuse to validate a law once, forcing the parliament to vote it again.

The second time he/she has no choice but to sign it.

While in theory the government coalition could have still passed the law twice and force the new president to validate it, the popular vote showed them they risk to be lynched if they do so. So when the new president asked for the project of the law to be voted down, the government MPs finally agreed to do so.

10,000 people protesting in front of the main government party's building right after the results of the elections became known might have helped them "see the light".

The second thing the new president managed to accomplish was to get several MPs stripped of their immunity from prosecution. The government coalition has 38 MPs who could not be arrested because their buddies were voting against. The new president's own party has about 10 MPs in the same situation (more to come, I'm sure since both sides are rotten to the core). However he made a big point in his campaign that he would cleanse the political class, so right after the elections he urged the parliament to stop obstructing justice.

Today the MPs started to strip their colleagues of immunity, quite likely because they fear what the population might do to them if they keep refusing. Deep down many MPs, irrespective if they are from the government coalition or from the opposition, hate they had to vote to allow the arrest of their colleagues. Because they know it will be their turn to be arrested tomorrow. All they do they do out of fear of the street.

[Costin_Razvan]

Most cities in Transilvania are well maintained, Sibiu is no exception. I visited it, I liked it quite a lot.

Personally I voted against Iohannis, not against him personally ( I was quite in favor of him becoming PM a few years back ) but because I simply viewed him as someone who wouldn't be able to achieve anything good with people like Blaga behind him, Blaga being one of Basescu's former cronies. I viewed him as a puppet put there by others who would control him from the shadows, at least with Ponta I knew exactly where I stood.

I dearly hope that Iohannis isn't deluded into thinking people voted for him, they voted out of fear, paranoia and hatred, oh yes hatred, for PSD ( not even Ponta ). If he doesn't realize this he will just become Basescu 2.0.

Maybe I am wrong, maybe Iohannis is Putin 2.0, in that I mean Putin was a candidate put forward as a puppet by others seeking to control a country but then turned around and dominated them all, and those refused he crushed.

I`m glad that Romania sent this strong message of maturity

Maturity? Maturity is voting for one candidate because you believe genuinely in his political governing plan for the nation, not because you take the piss on the opposition without knowing about how Iohannis wants to rule.

Romania sent a message that it's population is a bunch of morons who vote purely on emotions and half, if not more, of the people who voted for Iohannis did so for this.

[Sphere]

Maturity? Maturity is voting for one candidate because you believe genuinely in his political governing plan for the nation, not because you take the piss on the opposition without knowing about how Iohannis wants to rule.

Voting in the opposition party just because the ruling party screwed up is modern western democracy in a nutshell.

If Romania's political leaders live in fear of the electorate voting their collective arses out for mistakes/corruption, regardless of the state of the opposition, that is absolutely progress.

[Costin_Razvan]

Voting in the opposition party just because the ruling party screwed up is modern western democracy in a nutshell.

Except that people didn't vote against them for anything they did since they started governing 2 years ago. Every argument about their recent actions influencing the vote in a major way or being the primse reason why people voted against them is complete BS. There was an impact of course, but a small one.

The main reason is that the PSD is viewed as a communist part that is controlled by oligarchs, that's how it's been for well over a DECADE now. Irrelevant of course that this is how it goes with every party but who cares right? When people saw the polls, the first round giving PSD a winning streak they got paranoid, furious whatever.

[ShockBlast]

So you voted against Johannis because he has Blaga in his party.

DO you REALISE you voted for a person who SURPASSED the right to VOTE ????

[Costin_Razvan]

So you voted against Johannis because he has Blaga in his party.

DO you REALISE you voted for a person who SURPASSED the right to VOTE ????

I realize perfectly well that I am not interested in Basescu 2.0, actually scratch that BOC 2.0. A puppet pulled by the strings of others.

What's happening now with MPs is them reacting to the street protests, but that's a very short term thing I can assure you. The word you are looking for is suppressed, at least that's what I am assuming you are saying and to that I say this: Voting in the diaspora has always been a mess ( look at 2009 ) and no one has cared to fix it, just like no one has cared or will care to fix problems in our voting system overall.

Most people who voted for him were never interested in politics up until these elections, and they accepted the false idea that they must vote against the current Prime Minister,

My own brother did this, one of my cousins, one of my friends as well. When I bluntly asked them if they knew exactly what Iohannis wanted to do and how or what the real issues with PSD and Ponta where they brought up BS arguments.

My cousin even went so far as to argue he was voting against PSD because there were more people from that party thrown in jail recently and thus it was indicative of a more corrupt party. When I smacked him with the fact KOVESI is our general prosecutor and she is a Basescu puppet through the bone he quieted down....

....still voted for the german.