President Iohannis begins his second term as president
Romanian president Klaus Iohannis presented the activity report of his first mandate as head of state.
Leyla Cheamil, 20.12.2019, 14:00
Romanian president Klaus Iohannis presented on Thursday the activity report of his first mandate as head of state, before being sworn in on Saturday, in Parliament’s plenary sitting, as president for a second term. Supported by the National Liberal Party, in power, Iohannis won a clear victory in the second round of the elections in November, with 66,09% of the votes, thus clearly defeating his contender, the former Social Democrat PM Viorica Dancila, who only got 33.91%. Iohannis said that the most important goal of his first mandate was for Romania to continue on its pro-European and democratic path, in the context in which he defined the past five years of his mandate as years full of major challenges, of which, the most dangerous one was “the danger for the country to deviate from its western path, during the PSD governing.”
Iohannis explained that, in terms of international politics, he focused on coordinates such as consolidating Romania’s role within NATO and the EU, and expanding and strengthening the Strategic Partnership with the US. At the same time, on a domestic level, Iohannis pointed out that the well functioning of the public authorities was at the centre of his work.
Klaus Iohannis: “In the last three years, there have been attempts of taking control of the state and weakening it by undermining justice and appointing incompetent people, from a certain party, in leading positions. In order to deter these deeply undemocratic forces, that attempted to put an end to the anti-corruption fight, I made use of all constitutional mechanisms.”
In economic terms, Iohannis has explained that he has constantly asked for responsible economic policies, for consistent and constant investment, healthy balances and fiscal-budgetary prudence, and when these four directions were ‘threatened by wrong decisions’, he acted within the boundaries of his constitutional prerogatives, to put an end to the deviations. Also, education and research have been a priority for the head of state, whose project, “Educated Romania” he describes as the most comprehensive consultation so far in the field of education, open to the entire society.
He has also said that, in the field of healthcare, he tried to reach the goals assumed in the presidential programme, promoting especially education for health and prevention, as well as putting the patient at the centre of the system, valuing the medical staff and implementing innovation in medicine, by supporting the concept of personalized medicine. Before winning his first presidential mandate in 2014, Klaus Iohannis had been, for 14 years, the mayor of the city of Sibiu.
(Translated by Elena Enache)
