Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has announced his resignation from office during a briefing at the Cotroceni Palace. The Cotroceni leader explained that he is stepping down "in order to spare Romania and Romanian citizens from a crisis and negative developments, effects that would follow after the procedure to suspend the president, which has started in the Romanian Parliament," IPN reports.

Klaus Iohannis said that the Romanian Parliament has started the procedure to suspend the president and that this is "a useless step, because in a few months he will leave office anyway, after the election of a new president. "It is an unfounded step because he has never violated the Constitution and it is a wasteful process because everybody loses and nobody wins," Iohannis said.

The Cotroceni leader added that in a few days, the Romanian Parliament will vote on his suspension and Romania will enter a crisis, because the referendum to impeach the president will be triggered. Acest demers va avea avea efecte pe plan interne pe plan extern, averzează Iohannis.

"Internally, the referendum will have an eminently negative effect. Society will be divided, some will agree, some will disagree, the whole discussion will be focused only on the negative. The whole of society will be disrupted. There will be no more discussion about the upcoming presidential elections, about how Romania will move forward, and the candidates will not even be able to present their ideas in this negative amalgam," Klaus Iohannis said.

Externally, Iohannis says, the effects will be lasting and negative. No one in the partners will understand why Romania is sacking its president after, in fact, it has already started the procedure for electing a new president and what is the point of such a step when the incumbent president will leave anyway.

"To put it in Romanian, we will effectively be a laughing stock. In order to spare Romania and the Romanian citizens from the crisis, from this useless and negative development, I am resigning as President of Romania. I will leave office the day after tomorrow, on February 12. May God bless Romania", concluded Klaus Iohannis.

Klaus Iohannis' term of office was due to end on December 21, 2024, but was extended by a decision of the Constitutional Court, which annulled the first round of the presidential election. Klaus Iohannis was first elected as President of Romania in 2014 and won his second term in 2019. Now Senate President Ilie Bolojan will take over as interim head of state.