Klaus Iohannis

Klaus Werner Iohannis (born 13 June 1959) is a Romanian politician, physicist, and former teacher who served as the president of Romania from 2014 until his resignation in 2025. Prior to entering national politics, Iohannis was a physics teacher at the Samuel von Brukenthal National College in his native Sibiu where he eventually served as mayor from 2000 to 2014 before ascending to the presidency. Iohannis was first elected the mayor of the Romanian town of Sibiu in 2000, on behalf of the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania (FDGR/DFDR). Although the Transylvanian Saxon population of Sibiu had declined to a tiny minority by the early 2000s, he won a surprise victory and was re-elected by landslides in 2004, 2008, and 2012. He is credited with turning his home town into one of Romania's most popular tourist destinations. Sibiu was named the European Capital of Culture in 2007 alongside Luxembourg City. In October 2009, four of the five political groups in the Parliament of Romania, excluding the Democratic Liberal Party (PDL) of then President Traian Băsescu, proposed Iohannis as a candidate for the office of Prime Minister of Romania; however, Băsescu refused to nominate him, despite Parliament's adoption of a declaration supporting his candidacy. He was again the candidate for Prime Minister of the PNL and the PSD in the elections in the same year. In February 2013, he became a member of the National Liberal Party (PNL), accepting an invitation from then liberal leader Crin Antonescu, and was immediately elected the party's first vice-president, eventually becoming the PNL president during the following year. Iohannis became the president of the National Liberal Party (PNL) in 2014, after previously serving as the leader of the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania (FDGR/DFDR) between 2002 and 2013. He was elected president in that year's election, and then subsequently re-elected by a landslide in 2019. Iohannis's second term was marked by democratic backsliding as well as a slight shift towards illiberalism and a more authoritarian style of government, especially after the 2021 political crisis and the formation of the National Coalition for Romania (CNR). He faced allegations of suppression of freedom of speech and press freedom. Furthermore, his approval ratings declined from April 2021 onwards as the electorate showed increasing disapproval of his political behaviour, favouring the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and rebuffing his former political allies (albeit several of them being solely conjunctural in the past) in the process. A survey from June 2023 showed that over 90% of Romanians did not trust Iohannis, with only 8% having a positive opinion on him. In 2023, the Economist Democracy Index ranked Romania last in the European Union (EU) in terms of democracy, even behind Viktor Orbán's Hungary. His term was extended due to the annulment of the 2024 presidential election, but he resigned in February 2025. Ideologically a conservative, Iohannis is the first Romanian president belonging to an ethnic minority, as he is a Transylvanian Saxon, part of Romania's German minority, which settled in Transylvania from the High Middle Ages onward.