Klaus Iohannis wins second term as president

Grabbing over 60% of Sunday's vote, Klaus Iohannis remains president after the most resounding failure of the Social-Democratic Party in the presidential election

Ştefan Stoica, 25.11.2019, 13:55

Since Ion Iliescu onwards, no Social-Democrat candidate has managed to win the
presidential runoff, whether we’re talking about Adrian Nastase, Mircea Geoana
or Victor Ponta, the latter actually conceding defeat to the incumbent president
back in 2014. At the same time, none of the aforementioned candidates suffered
a defeat so great as the former Social-Democrat Prime Minister Viorica Dancila,
which gives even more reason to celebrate to Klaus Iohannis, who on Sunday won
the presidential election in Romania. Supported by the National Liberal Party, Klaus
Iohannis said he won a modern, European and normal Romania, and the merit
belongs to what he has termed the heroes of today, namely the voters. No
longer having to cooperate with a Social-Democratic Government, with the recent
investiture of the Liberal Cabinet, and energized by the legitimacy of Sunday’s
landslide victory, the President promised he would make efforts to build a
Parliament majority that should help modernize the country.

This is the
most categorical victory ever obtained against the Social-Democratic Party. I
am happy, content, humble and hopeful about the future. Now, after this win,
there are many things to tend to, many things to repair. I will personally get
involved to create a new majority made up of democratic parties that would lead
Romania towards modernization, Europeanization and normalcy.

In turn Viorica
Dancila believes not everything is lost, and this second defeat for the
Social-Democrats within 6 months is the sign of mobilization for the local and legislative
elections slated for next year.

The
Social-Democratic Party has regained the trust of Romanian citizens who voted
for us in 2016. We have won back the votes we lost in the European Parliament
elections, today standing at over 3 million. I am confident this number of
votes will both help and compel us to do everything in our power to win the
local and legislative elections.

Political
pundits believe Dancila’s excessive optimism in the face of clear defeat is a
sign of desperation. They expect nothing less than Dancila’s demise from the
party helm. Things are looking any easier for Klaus Iohannis either, pundits
argue, since although he has the Liberal Cabinet at his side, he can no longer
put the blame on political and institutional wars of attrition. In sociological
terms, Sunday’s vote reveals Iohannis won the vote of young people, people with
higher education degrees and those living in urban areas. Region-wise, Iohannis
won 44% of the votes in Bucharest, in the south and southeast, 37% in the
center and west, the more developed regions, and 19% in the underdeveloped eastern
regions.

In turn, Viorica Dancila won 53% of the vote in Bucharest, south and
southeast, 25% in the center and west and 22% in the east. Voter turnout was
close to 50%, which is below the turnout of the previous presidential runoff,
but 2% higher than the all-time low reported in the first round. Romanians
living in the Dispora, on the other hand, have exceeded the turnout reported in
the first round, reaching the mark of 940 thousand voters. Thus Romanians
living abroad have proven they care about the country’s fate, some of them possibly
wanting to return home to change things for the better. It is also a lesson that
any Government, not just the Social Democrats, should learn. Instead of the forceful
repression of a peaceful protest, which happened on August 10, 2018,
politicians should care more about giving the Diaspora a more robust
representation in the Romanian Parliament. 4 deputies and 2 senators currently
represent Romanians living abroad in the Romanian Parliament.

(Translated by V. Palcu)