Mayor from Transylvania wins Romanian presidency in an upset
Klaus Iohannis, the mayor of the Transylvanian town of Sibiu, was elected president of Romania on Sunday, in a major upset over Prime Minister Victor Ponta. Ponta, who easily beat Iohannis in the first round, conceded before the votes were even counted in Sunday's runoff, but insisted he will stay on as prime minister and that his Social Democrat alliance would retain its majority in parliament until elections scheduled for 2016. With three quarter of the votes counted, Iohannis was 10 points ahead of Ponta. Voter turnout was the highest since 1996.
Iframe Code
Iohannis was backed by two center-right parties, Reuters says, but the decisive issue of the campaign seems to have been Ponta's government's perceived slight of voters outside Romania, who had to wait in long lines in the first round. Iohannis will be the first Romania president from an ethnic minority, though his German Saxon forebears settled in Romania in medieval times.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Film reviews: ‘Send Help’ and ‘Private Life’Feature An office doormat is stranded alone with her awful boss and a frazzled therapist turns amateur murder investigator
-
Movies to watch in Februarythe week recommends Time travelers, multiverse hoppers and an Iraqi parable highlight this month’s offerings during the depths of winter
-
ICE’s facial scanning is the tip of the surveillance icebergIN THE SPOTLIGHT Federal troops are increasingly turning to high-tech tracking tools that push the boundaries of personal privacy
-
Trump sues IRS for $10B over tax record leaksSpeed Read The president is claiming ‘reputational and financial harm’ from leaks of his tax information between 2018 and 2020
-
Trump, Senate Democrats reach DHS funding dealSpeed Read The deal will fund most of the government through September and the Department of Homeland Security for two weeks
-
Fed holds rates steady, bucking Trump pressureSpeed Read The Federal Reserve voted to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged
-
Judge slams ICE violations amid growing backlashSpeed Read ‘ICE is not a law unto itself,’ said a federal judge after the agency violated at least 96 court orders
-
Rep. Ilhan Omar attacked with unknown liquidSpeed Read This ‘small agitator isn’t going to intimidate me from doing my work’
-
Democrats pledge Noem impeachment if not firedSpeed Read Trump is publicly defending the Homeland Security secretary
-
The billionaires’ wealth tax: a catastrophe for California?Talking Point Peter Thiel and Larry Page preparing to change state residency
-
Hegseth moves to demote Sen. Kelly over videospeed read Retired Navy fighter pilot Mark Kelly appeared in a video reminding military service members that they can ‘refuse illegal orders’
