Romania’s Presidential Election
In an electoral upset for Romania’s Presidency, the favored candidate, sitting Prime Minister Victor Ponta ceded the election to his opponent, Klaus Iohannis, mayor of the Transylvanian city Sibiu – capital of European culture in 2007. In the first round of the election, the Prime Minister came out on top with over 40% of the vote, with Iohannis following with 30% of the ballot. The two candidates had two weeks until the second tour, which saw an estimated electoral participation rate of 62% - larger than any of the three previous presidential elections. Contentious issues in the election included: the judicial procedures against corrupt officials, the absentee-ballot from the Romanian diaspora, and the clash between Ponta’s nationalist campaign and Iohannis’s German ethnicity. Prime Minister Ponta greatly advertised his Romanian, Orthodox identity versus Mayor Iohannis’s German ethnicity and Lutheranism, but fanning the nationalist flames did not prove successful to undue Iohannis’s campaign. However, the Prime Minister’s Social Democratic Party still holds a majority in the Parliament and is expected to remain as Prime Minister; what follows is a cohabitation.
The Romanian diaspora played a key role in this election. During the first round of voting, images were spread across the country of Romanians forming immense queues at their respective embassies to cast their ballots, to no avail. Many accused the government of trying to distort the absentee-ballot process to prevent opponents from casting their ballots. Some reported to have waited over nine hours by their embassies to no avail. Tellingly, of all the absentee ballots submitted in the first round, close to 50% of them were casted for Mayor Iohannis, as opposed to merely 12% for PM Ponta. This follows an observed trend that the diaspora usually votes against the Social Democratic Party, the party which inherited much of the former Communist Party.
The Romanian economy was a prime issue in the election. Klaus Iohannis accused the Prime Minister’s economic policies of driving Romania back into recession – a potent accusation given that Romania’s IMF loan program is due to end next year. In response, Ponta released Romania’s Third Quarter GDP statistics ahead of time to demonstrate that the economy has improved. However, th Presidential office is only responsible for foreign and defense policy, and judiciary appointments. The election has thus been interpreted as a rebuff against Prime Minister Ponta. Nonetheless, he did not signal any intention to step down from the Prime Ministry, but rumors have circulated that he may be in for a leadership challenge.
Now with the election decided, Romania must begin to draw its budget for 2015 – the final year in which it is subject to the IMF’s precautionary loan program. The country is being called upon to continue an austerity program which is predicted to raise taxes for the next fiscal year. During the campaign, Prime Minister Ponta promised he would attempt to increase pensions, while accusing Mayor Iohannis of wishing to slash them. Now, the Prime Minister, as the Head of Government, might be in charge of implementing new taxes and cutting the pensions he said he would protect. For this reason, some observers have commented that it would be beneficial for the opposition to let Ponta remain as PM for longer, seeing how parliamentary elections are not due until 2016. By allowing Ponta to become the face of the 2015 budget, his image could be further tarnished across the country and reduce the popularity of the Social Democratic Party.
Klaus Iohannis is the first elected President from Romania’s German ethnic group, and that is a remarkable feat in of itself. Angela Merkel celebrated this as a confirmation of Romania’s European orientation, a reminder of how far Romania has progressed since the fall of Communism 25 years ago. President-Elect Iohannis is experiencing a honey-moon with Romania, having already met the country’s former King Michael I, and has experienced a successful first-day for his newly released autobiography. Despite the struggles that the country will face, moments like these serve to remind us of the strides all Eastern Europe has made since 1989 and the emergence of pluralism in the former Communist bloc.