Why Romania’s President Iohannis, PM Ciolacu, and intelligence chiefs, must step down after the november electoral debacle

It would be a major affront to the electorate for Iohannis to remain in office for months after December 21. He has zero political legitimacy to appoint a new prime minister, as such an appointee would inherit all of Iohannis’s negative baggage as president. What public support could the next head of government have—regardless of their party affiliation—when they are nominated by a president who has lost the citizens’ trust?

It would also be an abuse of power for him to appoint a Constitutional Court (CCR) judge, especially as Livia Stanciu’s mandate expires in 2025. According to sources, Iohannis is considering Corina Corbu, the current head of the Supreme Court, who has a track record of opposing reforms.

Most importantly, Iohannis must step down and take responsibility for failing, as head of state, to prevent “foreign state support” for Călin Georgescu’s campaign, as he himself admitted in his last statement. At this moment, there appears to be no task force at Cotroceni (the presidential palace) coordinating investigations into alleged foreign attacks on Romanian democracy, if they indeed occurred.

Who is currently investigating the grave allegations presented in the secret service reports declassified by the Supreme Council of National Defense (CSAT)? Are individual institutions—such as the police and prosecutors—conducting their investigations independently? Is there a command center centralizing this information? How is it possible, in the midst of a propaganda war and a flood of fake news about Romania potentially entering a war against Russia, for the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SIE) to leave the country and relax in Abu Dhabi at a Formula 1 race?

The president’s disinterest in the country is evident, even in critical moments.

PSD leader Marcel Ciolacu must also face political accountability for the electoral debacle. Initially, he took the correct step by resigning as PSD leader, but he later reversed this decision and now, shockingly, appears at the negotiation table for the future government. What political legitimacy does a PSD leader have who failed to qualify for the presidential runoff and achieved the lowest parliamentary score in the party’s history? Ciolacu has completely exhausted his credibility after a year and a half as prime minister. He lost the trust of his voters following G4Media.ro’s revelations about his luxury private jet trips to exclusive destinations, paid for by Nordis (a luxury real estate developer). His image as a modest politician has been utterly destroyed.

Failures of the Intelligence Chiefs

The heads of the main intelligence services, Răzvan Ionescu (Romanian Intelligence Service, SRI) and Gabriel Vlase (Foreign Intelligence Service, SIE), must also bear responsibility for the electoral failures. They were unable to prevent alleged foreign interference in the elections, which they only identified after the fact in declassified documents from Cotroceni. Legitimate suspicions persist that the extremist elements in society were fueled by leaders nurtured in the shadows of Romania’s power structures. These behind-the-scenes players have used figures like George Simion, Călin Georgescu, and Diana Șoșoacă to interfere in the political landscape over time.

Ionescu and Vlase have completely failed in their primary mission. Even worse, Vlase showed arrogance by flying to Abu Dhabi for a Formula 1 race on December 8, as previously mentioned, amid a crisis involving potential Russian interference in the elections. To cap off the image of incompetence, SIE compromised the identities of two active officers in an attempt to deter G4Media.ro from publishing any information about the flight, threatening that doing so would violate the law.

A Lack of Accountability at the Top

It is astonishing that the heads of the intelligence services have not resigned. Some might argue that they shouldn’t resign during a crisis, but this is not the case. The institutions would not collapse without them. On the contrary, every day they remain in office deepens suspicions that they are trying to cover up possible complicity with certain candidates or extremist parties. There is no guarantee that the intelligence services genuinely want to shed light on the events of the presidential election campaign while credible suspicions remain that these very institutions are among the major culprits for the electoral disaster.

To date, no one at the highest levels of Romanian leadership has taken even the slightest responsibility. The only resignation has been that of Nicolae Ciucă as head of the PNL, following his disgraceful fifth-place finish in the presidential elections. However, this was far from an honorable resignation, given the humiliating result.

Romania seems to have become a leaderless nation. The main figures in the state are deeply illegitimate, and every day they remain in office fuels voter anger further. President Klaus Iohannis should complete his term but resign the day after the new Parliament elects its leadership and the new Senate president can be appointed interim president. This interim president should appoint a prime minister with a limited mandate until a new president is elected.

The resulting interim government would not be able to undertake major reforms but would manage current affairs. It would lack legitimacy to enact significant measures, as the prime minister would not have been nominated by a president elected by the people.

Only a newly elected president would have full legitimacy to appoint a prime minister with a strong mandate to build a majority coalition. A prime minister appointed by a future president chosen by the electorate would be in a position to form a government capable of implementing in 2025 the reforms outlined in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), cutting budget expenditures, and urgently dismissing the army of political appointees embedded in ministries and state-owned companies to prevent administrative bankruptcy.

The longer current political leaders and key institutional heads cling to power, the stronger the protest vote will grow. Klaus Iohannis, Marcel Ciolacu, Răzvan Ionescu, and Gabriel Vlase need to resign urgently to begin restoring even a semblance of public trust in the state.