01/12/2014
Corinne Deloy, Fondation Robert Schuman
To everyone's surprise and contrary to forecasts, Klaus Johannis (National Liberal Party, PNL), Mayor of Sibiu and member of the Democratic Forum of Germans of Romania (FDGR) won the second round of the presidential election that took place on 16th November in Romania. The right-wing opposition candidate won 54% of the vote against 46% for Victor Ponta, outgoing Prime Minister and chair of the Social Democratic Party (PSD). The difference in votes between the two men (8 percentage points) is unusual in Romania where presidential elections are often very tightly run. Victor Ponta came out ahead after the first round on 2nd November with 40.44% of the vote against 30.37% for Klaus Johannis. Klaus Johannis' victory marks a real change for Romania which has been run by the post-Communist Nomenklatura since the fall of Nicolae Ceausescu in December 1989.
Turnout was high and totaled 61.5%, i.e. 3.48 points more in comparison with the second round of the previous presidential election on 22nd November 2009 and 8.33 points more in comparison with the first round.
Many Romanians living abroad were not able to vote in the first round on 2nd November. Only 160,056 of them went to ballot because an insufficient number of polling stations had been opened (294 in all and only around 160,000 voting slips printed for approximately 4 million voters), notably in France, the UK, Germany and in Belgium.
Between rounds, demonstrations were organized in Bucharest and in the towns of Cluj, Timisoara, Sibiu, Brasov, Orada and Constanta in solidarity with expatriate Romanians who had not been able to fulfill their civic duty. On 10th November Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean (PSD), who was in charge of organizing the voting procedure for Romanians abroad, had to resign from office. He denied accusations brought against him explaining that legislation prohibited the ministry from establishing more polling stations, which was denied by the Central Electoral Office. The minister did however guarantee that steps would be taken to ensure that voting would take place smoothly in the embassies during the second round: raising the number of voting booths, possibility of downloading anti-fraud forms online, therefore before arrival at the polling station, (every voter had to declare that he had not voted in another place).
Titus Corlatean was replaced by Teodor Melecanu, former head of diplomacy (1992-1996) and also a presidential candidate (0.56% of the vote in the first round).
According to the polls, 46% of the Romanians living abroad voted for Klaus Johannis and 15.8% for Victor Ponta on 2nd November. 'It is sad to see that a candidate can profit from his public office to prevent citizens from exercising their constitutional right. Victor Ponta is a threat to democracy'; declared Klaus Johannis after the first round. Sergiu Miscoiu, an analyst at the Centre for Political Studies and International Research (CESPRI) in Cluj, maintained that Victor Ponta had made 'a serious mistake' by ostracizing the expats. Indeed this decision only strengthened solidarity between Romanians.
'Dear Romanians, you are heroes. 25 years after the revolution people were obliged to go out into the streets to defend their right to vote. I thank the Romanian diaspora who queued for hours in order to vote', declared Klaus Johannis after the 2nd round. 379,000 Romanians living abroad, i.e. twice the number that voted in the first round did so on 16th November.
Aged 56, Klaus Johannis originally comes from Sibiu (Hermannstadt in German), a town of which he became mayor in 2000 – the first of German origin in a Romanian town since Alfred Dörr, Mayor of Sibiu from 1940 and 1945. Elected regularly back into office (he won a fourth mandate with 78.4% of the vote in the local elections on 10th and 24th June 2012), Mr Johannis, a member of the German minority of Romania, is a symbol of success: indeed he has completely transformed the town, as he has renovated infrastructures and restored the historic centre. Since he has been in office Sibiu has experienced true economic success and has become a privileged tourist destination chosen as European Cultural Capital in 2007, when Romania joined the European Union.
A graduate in physics from the University of Babes-Bolyai in Cluj, Klaus Johannis first taught physics before becoming a primary school inspector. He joined the Democratic Forum of Germans of Romania (FGDR) in 1990. His name was mentioned for the first time in 2009 in replacement of Emil Boc (Liberal Democratic Party, PDL), as Prime Minister but the President of the Republic, Traian Basescu opposed this choice. Klaus Johannis joined the National Liberal party in 2013. On 28th June 2014 he took over as the party's leader from Crin Antonescu, who resigned from office after the party's performance in the European elections on 25th May.
After the merger of the party with the Liberal Democratic Party, Klaus Johannis chose to represent both movements which came under the label 'Liberal Christian Alliance' (Alianta Crestin Liberala, ACL), in the Presidential election on 2nd and 16th November. The party that will probably be formed at the end of this year on the basis of the two main right-wing movements is due to retain its name as the 'National Liberal Party'.
Klaus Johannis will take over from Traian Basescu on 22nd December – i.e. 25 years to the day after the Romanian revolution of 1989 at the Cotroceni Palace, the residence of the President of the Republic in Bucharest.