1.
Romania
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Romania is a sovereign state located in Southeastern Europe. It borders the Black Sea, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia and it has an area of 238,391 square kilometres and a temperate-continental climate. With over 19 million inhabitants, the country is the member state of the European Union. Its capital and largest city, Bucharest, is the sixth-largest city in the EU, the River Danube, Europes second-longest river, rises in Germany and flows in a general southeast direction for 2,857 km, coursing through ten countries before emptying into Romanias Danube Delta. The Carpathian Mountains, which cross Romania from the north to the southwest are marked by one of their tallest peaks, Moldoveanu, modern Romania was formed in 1859 through a personal union of the Danubian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The new state, officially named Romania since 1866, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877, at the end of World War I, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia united with the sovereign Kingdom of Romania. Romania lost several territories, of which Northern Transylvania was regained after the war, following the war, Romania became a socialist republic and member of the Warsaw Pact. After the 1989 Revolution, Romania began a transition back towards democracy and it has been a member of NATO since 2004, and part of the European Union since 2007. A strong majority of the population identify themselves as Eastern Orthodox Christians and are speakers of Romanian. The cultural history of Romania is often referred to when dealing with artists, musicians, inventors. For similar reasons, Romania has been the subject of notable tourist attractions, Romania derives from the Latin romanus, meaning citizen of Rome. The first known use of the appellation was attested in the 16th century by Italian humanists travelling in Transylvania, Moldavia, after the abolition of serfdom in 1746, the word rumân gradually fell out of use and the spelling stabilised to the form român. Tudor Vladimirescu, a leader of the early 19th century. The use of the name Romania to refer to the homeland of all Romanians—its modern-day meaning—was first documented in the early 19th century. The name has been officially in use since 11 December 1861, in English, the name of the country was formerly spelt Rumania or Roumania. Romania became the predominant spelling around 1975, Romania is also the official English-language spelling used by the Romanian government. The Neolithic-Age Cucuteni area in northeastern Romania was the region of the earliest European civilization. Evidence from this and other sites indicates that the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture extracted salt from salt-laden spring water through the process of briquetage
2.
President of Romania
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The President of Romania is the head of state of Romania. The President is directly elected by a system for a five-year term. An individual may serve two terms, during his/her term in office, the President may not be a member of any political party. The office of President was created in 1974, when Communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu elevated the presidency of the State Council to an executive presidency. It gradually took its current form in stages after the Romanian Revolution, the current President of Romania is Klaus Iohannis, since 21 December 2014. In the Communist era, the president was elected for a term of five years by the Great National Assembly and he served as ex officio president of the State Council, and had the right to act on any matter that didnt require a State Council plenum. He also appointed and dismissed ministers and heads of central agencies, Ceaușescu created the post in order to make himself chief decision-maker in both name and in fact. Previously, he had nominally been first among equals on the State Council, in practice, he used his power to act on all matters that didnt require a plenum to rule by decree, and frequently usurped many powers that belonged to the State Council as a whole. After the Constitutional Court acknowledges the legality of the election, the Houses of Parliament meet in a joint session, the prerogatives of the President of Romania are set out in Title II, Chapter III of the Constitution. In internal affairs, Representing the Romanian State and safeguarding of the independence, unity. Guarding the observance of the Constitution and the functioning of public authorities, designating and appointing the Prime Minister, subject to parliamentary approval. Appointing and removing ministers, on the proposal of the Prime Minister, consulting the Government on major policy matters. Addressing messages to Parliament on issues of national interest, summoning the Houses of Parliament after a legislative election. Requesting the convocation of a session of Parliament. In foreign affairs, Concluding international treaties negotiated by the Government, on proposal by the Government, accrediting and recalling diplomatic envoys. Receiving letters of credence from foreign diplomatic envoys, approving the setting up, closing down or change in rank of diplomatic missions. In defence issues, Exerting the role of Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, presiding over the Supreme Council of National Defence. Declaring mobilisation of the Armed Forces, subject to approval of Parliament
3.
Prime Minister of Romania
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The Prime Minister of Romania is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was styled President of the Council of Ministers, when the term Government included more than the Cabinet, the title was officially changed to Prime Minister during the communist regime. Sorin Grindeanu has been the incumbent prime minister since 4 January,2017, one of the roles of the President of the Republic is to designate a candidate for the office of Prime Minister. The President must consult with the party that has the majority in the Parliament or, if no such majority exists, once designated, the candidate assembles a proposal for the governing program and the cabinet. The proposal must be approved by the Parliament within ten days, both the program and the cabinet membership are debated by the Parliament in a joint session of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. The proposal is accepted if a majority of all Deputies. Once the vote of confidence is obtained, the candidate becomes the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister, the Ministers, and other members of the Government take an oath before the President, as stipulated under Article 82 of the Constitution. The Government as a whole and each of its members exercise their mandate from the date of the oath, the Prime Minister directs Government actions and co-ordinates the activities of its members. He submits to the Chamber of Deputies or the Senate reports and statements on Government policy, the President cannot dismiss the Prime Minister, but the Parliament can withdraw its support through a vote of no-confidence. List of Prime Ministers of Romania Nicolae C
4.
Parliament of Romania
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The Parliament of Romania is the national legislature of Romania, consisting of the Chamber of Deputies, and the Senate. Its meeting place is at the Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, prior to the modification of the Constitution in 2003, the two houses had identical attributes. A text of a law had to be approved by both houses, if the text differed, a special commission was formed by deputies and senators, that negotiated between the two houses the form of the future law. The report of this commission had to be approved in a joint session of the Parliament. After the 2003 referendum, a law still has to be approved by both houses, but each house has designated matters it gets to deliberate before the other, in capacity of deciding chamber. If that first chamber adopts a law proposal, it is passed on to the other one, if it makes amendments, the bill is sent back to the deciding chamber, the decision of which is final. In 2009, a referendum was held to consult the population about turning the parliament into a unicameral body, although the referendum passed, the results are not binding, a referendum explicitly mentioning the modification of the constitution being required to achieve this. The organic regulation laid the foundations for the institution in the Romanian Principalities. Under the royal dictatorship, the parliament became merely a decorative body, carol abdicated in September 1940, and the succeeding National Legionary State suspended parliament. The National Legionary State as such lasted less than five months, but it was succeeded by Ion Antonescus military dictatorship, thanks to the documents issued by the provisional revolutionary power, Romania has returned to a bicameral parliamentary system. All these stipulations can be found in the countrys new Constitution, the 1866,1923, and 1938 Constitution of Romania state that the assembly presidents are elected at the beginning of each session. This tradition was kept in the years of the Peoples Republic. In modern times, both presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and of the Senate are elected for the duration of that houses term. Under special circumstances the presidents of the houses can be revoked, a text of a law had to be approved by both houses. If the text differed, a commission was formed by deputies and senators. The report of this commission had to be approved in a joint session of the Parliament and this French procedure proved to be extremely long and inefficient with respect to the expectations of the Romanians towards democracy. After the 2003 referendum, a law still has to be approved by both houses, but in some one is superior to the other, being called decision chamber. This eliminates the process of negotiation between the two houses, and keeps the Senate as the house and the Chamber as the lower house
5.
Social Democratic Party (Romania)
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The Social Democratic Party is the major social-democratic political party in Romania. PSD traces its origins to the Democratic National Salvation Front, a group established in 1992 from the post-communist National Salvation Front. In 1993 this merged with three parties to become the Party of Social Democracy in Romania. The present name was adopted after a merger with the smaller Romanian Social Democratic Party in 2001, since its formation, it has always been one of the two dominant parties of the country. The PDSR governed Romania from 1992 to 1996, while the PSDR was a coalition partner between 1996 and 2000. The party left government after Prime Minister Victor Ponta resigned in November 2015, the founder of the party, Ion Iliescu, became President of the Republic, in office from the end of Communism in 1989 to 1996, and again from 2000 to 2004. On 22 April 2016, Liviu Dragnea was found guilty for vote rigging in the 2012 referendum, dragneas electoral rights and party membership were not suspended, thus he refused to step down as President of the PSD, having the support of almost the entire party. FDSN won the 1992 elections and went on to govern Romania until 1996, on 10 July 1993 it took the name of Party of Social Democracy in Romania upon merger with the Socialist Democratic Party of Romania, the Republican Party and the Cooperative Party. From 1994 to 1996 the PDSR ruled in coalition with the right-wing Romanian National Unity Party and Greater Romania Party, PUNR had ministers in the cabinet chaired by Nicolae Văcăroiu from March 1994 to September 1996. PRM was not present at the Cabinet, but was given some posts in the State administration, the PDSR went into opposition after the 1996 election, which was won by the right-wing coalition Romanian Democratic Convention. PSDR merged with PDSR on 16 June 2001, and the party took its present name. Mircea Geoană was elected president of the party in April 2005 by delegates at a PSD Party Congress held in Bucharest and his victory represented a surprise defeat for former President Ion Iliescu, who was expected to defeat Geoană handily. On 17 April 2008, the Social Democratic Party and the Conservative Party announced they would form an alliance for the 2008 local elections. In February 2010, the Congress elected Victor Ponta as president, on 5 February 2011, the PSD formed a political alliance known as the Social Liberal Union with the Conservative Party and National Liberal Party. The USL was disbanded on 25 February 2014 with exit of the National Liberal Party which immediately entered opposition, a number of its current or former senior members have also been accused of corruption, interfering in the judiciary and using their political positions for personal enrichment. Alleged text transcripts of PSD meetings surfaced on an anonymous Web site just before the 2004 Romanian presidential election, Năstase and his ministers are shown talking about political involvement in corruption trials of the governments members, or involvement in suppressing disobedient media. Năstase stated that the transcripts were fake, but several party members, including former PSD president, adrian Năstase temporarily self-suspended himself from the position on 16 January 2006 pending investigation of a scandal provoked by his wealth declaration, where he was accused of corruption. Politicians of the party have occasionally employed utilitarian anti-Semitism and this means that politicians who may usually not be anti-Semites played off certain anti-Semitic prejudices, in order to serve their political necessities
6.
Romanian presidential election, 2014
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A presidential election took place in Romania in 2014, and was held in two rounds, on November 2 and 16. In the first round, out of fourteen runners the top two candidates qualified in a run-off. Victor Ponta, Prime Minister and leader of the Social Democratic Party won around 40% of the vote, however, his government faced some indirect international criticism, with U. S. The electoral campaign ran between 3 October and 1 November and was overshadowed by corruption scandals involving key figures of PSD. Traian Băsescu won the last presidential election in 2009 and was sworn in for his term on 21 December 2009. Judge Veronica Năstasie is elected president of the Central Electoral Bureau,23 September, last day for submitting candidacies and the electoral insignia of the candidates. 24 September, the Central Electoral Bureau validated all the 14 submitted candidacies. 2 November,7 a. m. –9 p. m. first round of the presidential election,6 November, validation and publication of the election results in the Official Monitor. 7–15 November, electoral campaign for second round,16 November 7 a. m. –9 p. m. second round of the presidential election. 21 November, validation and publication of the results in the Official Gazette. The left-wing parties designated a candidate, Victor Ponta, the current Prime Minister. He was rated with the best chance of winning the election by main opinion polls, on the other hand, the main right-wing parties, strengthened under the Christian Liberal Alliance, have designated Klaus Iohannis, the second favorite of the opinion polls. This was a number of candidates since 1996, since in 2000,2004 and 2009. Likewise, this was the first time women candidates ran for the position of president of the country, because Corneliu Vadim Tudor appeared as the leader of the party in the Register of Political Parties kept at the Bucharest Tribunal, Gheorghe Funar is ran as an independent. Victor Ponta launched his campaign on his birthday, in a rally on the National Arena. Over 70,000 people from across the country attended the rally, one of the stadium lawns was covered with four large panels inscribed with the slogan Proud to be Romanians and depicting Romanian folk motifs. Likewise, he was criticized by PMP candidate Elena Udrea for the cost of organizing such an event which, Klaus Iohannis launched his campaign in front of the Government, in the presence of up to 30,000 people. The special guest of the event was the Secretary General of the EPP, Antonio López-Istúriz White, the vast majority of Romanians are Christian Orthodox like Ponta, while Iohannis is Protestant
7.
Romanian legislative election, 2016
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Legislative elections were held in Romania on 11 December 2016. They were the first held under a new electoral system adopted in 2015, the new electoral legislation provides a norm of representation for deputies of 73,000 inhabitants and 168,000 inhabitants for senators, which decreased the number of MPs. A total of 466 parliamentary seats were contested, compared with the 588 parliamentarians elected in 2012, the diaspora was represented by four deputies and two senators, elected by postal vote. The elections saw a turnout of 39. 5%, lower than in 2012, the legislative election of 2016 unfolded differently compared to 2012 and 2008. The new electoral law promulgated by President Klaus Iohannis on 20 July 2015 however didnt retain uninominal constituencies for the Senate, closely sticking to the commissions recommendations, the new electoral law completely returned to party-list proportional representation. All in all this totals to a number of 466 MPs, while for single-party lists the electoral threshold is kept at 5%, a higher threshold of 8–10% is introduced for electoral alliances. For the first time the Romanian electors residing abroad were able to cast their vote via mail, in a reaction to the flawed procedures at the 2014 presidential election. Although the image of Victor Ponta and his Social Democratic Party was badly affected by scandals and a recent wave of protests. Besides the PSD, the Romanian party system however went through a number of substantial regroupings and they won an absolute majority to form a government headed by prime minister Victor Ponta. In turn, the PNL dropped out of the government in February 2014. Formerly affiliated with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, subsequently, the PNL joined forces with the Democratic Liberal Party, which itself had suffered a split, when Traian Băsescu left to form the new party Peoples Movement. Ahead of a merger, PDL and PNL formed the Christian Liberal Alliance. The two parties merged on 17 November 2014 under the name of National Liberal Party. UNPR president Gabriel Oprea advanced the variant of launching an independent list in the election as one of two options. While aiming for 10% at the national vote, the party also reaffirmed its commitment to the Centre Left Alliance with the PSD. However, in July 2016, UNPR joined the right-leaning Peoples Movement Party led by former president Traian Băsescu, Oprea, himself under investigation for abuse of power, resigned from the party and declared his intention to leave politics. Conservative MEP Maria Grapini accused PC of betrayal after fusion with PLR, a new nationalist party, United Romania Party, was founded by MP Bogdan Diaconu on 17 August 2014 and became official by court decision on 17 February 2015. Led by Nicușor Dan, a professor, this is a reformist group of newcomers to politics committed to rooting out corruption
8.
Counties of Romania
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A total of 41 counties, along with the municipality of Bucharest, constitute the official administrative divisions of Romania. They represent the countrys NUTS-3 statistical subdivisions within the European Union, most counties are named after a major river, while some are named after notable cities within them, such as the county seat. The earliest organization into județe of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia dates back to at least the late 14th century, for most of the time since modern Romania was formed in 1859, the administrative division system has been similar to the French departments one. The system has changed several times since then, and the number of counties has varied over time. The current format has largely been in place since 1968 as only small changes have made since then. The average countys land area is 5,809 square kilometres, with Timiș County the largest and Ilfov County the smallest. The municipality of Bucharest, which has the administrative level as that of a county, is both more populous and much smaller than any county, with 1,883,425 people and 228 square kilometres. The earliest organization into județe, and ținuturi, dates back at least to the late 14th century, inspired from the organization of the late Byzantine Empire, each județ was ruled by a jude, a person officially appointed with administrative and judicial functions. Transylvania was divided into counties headed by comes with administrative. Aside from the 1950–1968 period, this system has remained in place until today, until 1948, each județ was further divided into several plăși, each administered by a pretor. County borders were largely intact, with few adjustments, and the total number of counties was raised to 71. In 1938, King Carol II modified the law on the administration of the Romanian territory according to the fascist model, ten ținuturi were created, ruled by Rezidenți Regali, appointed directly by the Monarch. The ținuturi represented another layer of administration between counties and the country, as the county borders were not erased, due to the territorial changes during World War II, this style of administration did not last, and the administration at the județ level was reintroduced after the war. Between 1941–1944, Romania administered the territory between the Dniester and Southern Bug rivers known as Transnistria, which consisted of 13 separate counties. After taking over the administration of the country in 1945, the Communist Party changed the model to that of the Soviet Union in 1950. Nevertheless, the county borders set then were different from those present during the interbellum. The county borders set in 1968 are still largely in place today, at present, Romania is divided into 41 counties and one municipality, these are assigned as the NUTS-3 geocode statistical subdivision scheme of Romania within the European Union. Each of the counties is further divided into cities and communes, the territorial districts of the Romanian judicial system overlap with county borders, thus avoiding further complication in the separation of powers on the government
9.
Metropolitan areas in Romania
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There are 10 metropolitan areas in Romania that have been constituted as of 2013. Here is a list of the municipalities that as of 2007 can for metropolitan areas around them with approximate populations, only three zones have been officially constituted by the end of 2007, Oradea, Iasi and Constanta. At least 9 others are at the level of project, iași metropolitan area – Today it has a population of 382,484 and 832 km². Oradea metropolitan area – It had a population of 258,800 in 2008 being the largest urban area in the Crișana historical region, târgu Mureș metropolitan area – It has a total population of 212,752. Baia Mare metropolitan area – It includes 19 localities and has a population of 237,348 inhabitants, Constanța metropolitan area – It hosts 70% of the county population,446,595 inhabitants, on an area totaling 33% of the administrative territory of Constanța. Brașov metropolitan area – Now has a population of 415.668 inhabitants and 1.744,83 km² and it includes the cities of Codlea, Săcele, Ghimbav, Predeal, and Râşnov. Cluj-Napoca metropolitan area – In 2011, the population of the area was estimated at 392,562. Craiova metropolitan area – It has a population of 333,834, satu Mare metropolitan area – In 2013, the population of the metropolitan area was estimated at 243,600, with a total area of 1,988 km². It includes 3 cities and 22 communes, piatra Neamț metropolitan area – It comprises 2 cities and 7 communes. Bucharest metropolitan area – Today it has a population of about 2.2 million and is slightly larger than the city proper. There are plans to enlarge the metropolitan area all the way to the Danube. A possible name would be Greater Bucharest, timișoara metropolitan area – In 2016, the population of the metropolitan area was estimated at 466,734 with a total area of 2439,19 km². Danube metropolitan area – It is formed by the cities of Galaţi, Bacău metropolitan area – It includes the urban area of Bacău and other surrounding localities, with a total population of around 200,000. Ploiești metropolitan area – It is made up of the area of Ploieşti. It has a population of more than 300,000, suceava–Botoșani conurbation – It includes the metropolitan areas of Suceava and Botoșani, with a total population of over 300,000 inhabitants. *Timișoara and Arad intend to form the Arad–Timișoara Conurbation, in the EU, a Functional Urban Area - formerly known as larger urban zone - consists of a city and its commuting zone
10.
Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania
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The Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania is a political party in Romania representing the Hungarian minority of Romania. From 1996 onwards UDMR has been a coalition partner in several governments. The party is a member of the European Peoples Party and Centrist Democrat International and its first president was the writer Géza Domokos. Four years later, the party, the Social Democratic Party of Romania won the 2000 elections. After negotiations, the UDMR, together with the Romanian Humanist Party, defected from the PSD alliance and pledged to form a coalition with the Justice, the UDMR obtained positions in the government. After the 2008 legislative elections UDMR entered in opposition, in 2012 the Romanian Parliament voted a motion of no confidence against the Ungureanu Cabinet. After the formation of the Social Liberal Union government led by Victor Ponta, after the 2012 elections the same parties continued to form a government under the leadership of Victor Ponta. In 2014 the liberal part of the party left the government, while the UDMR, PC. The UDMR left the government in December 2014, shortly after the victory of Klaus Iohannis as President of Romania. Since 2014 the UDMR is in opposition, UDMR is not a legally registered political party, but takes part in elections under art. 4 of the Law 68/1992 which assimilates organizations representing national minorities to political parties from a point of view. The UDMR represents the Magyar community of Romania, Hungarians represent 18. 9% of the total population of Transylvania, in Szeklerland they form the majority. The overwhelming majority of the Hungarian population of Romania lives in Transylvanian counties, in national elections, the Alliance consistently obtains around 6% of the votes, which roughly corresponds to the percentage of ethnic Hungarian voters. The organizations president is Hunor Kelemen, elected at a party congress in 2011, béla Markó, a writer, had held the position from 1993. He in turn was preceded by founding president Géza Domokos, in office from 1990 to 1993 and it has several associated partners and groups representing the civil society, or the social, scientific, artistic or professional domains. As decision-making bodies, the UDMR operates the Congress, the Council of Representatives, the Permanent Council, the consulting bodies of the alliance are, the Consulting Council of Regional Presidents, the Consulting Council of Platforms and the National Council of Self-governments. The bodies credited with controlling are the Regulation Control Committee, the Ethics, in addition, the President regularly convenes other consultative bodies such as the Economic Council and the Foreign Council. As an ethnic minority organization representing the Romanian Magyars the UDMR, above all, concerns itself with Hungarian minority rights, the alliance has undertaken the task of representing the interests of the Hungarian community of Romania in Romanian and European politics as well
11.
Romanian legislative election, 2012
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Legislative elections were held in Romania on 9 December 2012. The Social Liberal Union of Prime Minister Victor Ponta won a majority in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Despite the severe weather in parts of the country, the turnout was at 41. 7%, higher than the last legislative elections held in 2008 which saw a presence of 39. 20%. The Social Liberal Union obtained a majority in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, with 60. 07% and 58. 61% of the votes respectively and in MP mandates. Far behind, the Right Romania Alliance came in place with only 16. 72% and 16. 52% of the votes and 80 seats. The Right Romania alliance officially dissolved after the election, peoples Party – Dan Diaconescu and Hungarian Democratic Union of Romania were the only other political groups that won seats in the Senate. Several parties for ethnic minorities also received seats in the Chamber of Deputies. The opposition, represented by Social Liberal Union leaders Victor Ponta and Crin Antonescu, the former Foreign Intelligence Service Director Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu was appointed interim prime minister on 9 February as a result. The government announced the intention to hold legislative and local elections at the same time, initially, the government proposed an election date in November 2012, but as the mayoral mandates expire in June 2012, this was ruled unconstitutional. The local elections were held on 10 June, with an unexpected runoff. President Traian Basescu nominated Opposition leader and president of the Social Democratic Party, however, after PDL, fearing poor results in the elections ahead because of it, appealed the Constitutional Court of Romania who invalidated the law on 27 June 2012 and reinstated the old one. In late 2010 the PSD+PC Alliance broke up without affecting the MEP seat held by the PC, in January 2011 the National Liberal Party – PNL and the Conservative Party – PC formed the Centre Right Alliance – ACD. In February 2011 ACD together with the Social Democratic Party – PSD formed the Social Liberal Union – USL, following the local election, PSD and the National Union for the Progress of Romania – UNPR formed the Centre Left Alliance, thus UNPR joining USL in mid-2012. For the 2012 local election PDL formed various county-level alliances with a range of parties. Eventually Ungureanu joined a party, Civic Force Party, and was elected its president. The alliance registered at the Central Electoral Bureau was called Right Romania Alliance – ARD formed by PDL, PNȚCD, the PDL centred ARD alliance was formed late after the Romanian presidential impeachment referendum,2012. As a result, some opinion polls do not include the ARD, opinion polls that show PDL do not show ARD. UNPR joined USL in August–September 2012, in a sceptical environment, as a result, some opinion polls show both political entities
12.
Klaus Iohannis
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Klaus Werner Iohannis is the current President of Romania. He became leader of the National Liberal Party in 2014, after having served as leader of the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania from 2002 to 2013, Iohannis was a physics teacher and a school inspector before entering full-time politics. Iohannis was first elected mayor of the city of Sibiu in 2000, Iohannis is credited with turning his city into one of Romanias most popular tourist destinations, and the city was declared the European Capital of Culture in 2007. He was again the candidate for Prime Minister of the National Liberal Party, Iohannis is the first Romanian president to come from an ethnic minority. He is a Transylvanian Saxon, part of Romanias German minority which settled in Transylvania in the 12th century, thus, he is the fourth president of German origin from Eastern Europe in the post-communist period, after Rudolf Schuster and Ferenc Mádl and Pál Schmitt. He is also the first president since the Romanian Revolution with no past ties to Communism, born in the historic centre of Sibiu to a Transylvanian Saxon family, Klaus Iohannis is the eldest child of Susanne and Gustav Heinz Johannis. He has a sister, Krista Johannis. His father worked as a technician at an enterprise, while his mother was a nurse, however, he chose to live and work in Romania. As of 2014, his parents, sister and a live in Würzburg. Iohannis has stated that his family settled in Transylvania in present-day Romania 850 years ago, Iohannis is fluent in German and Romanian at a native level and also speaks English. The original spelling of his name is Johannis, but the name was registered by a Romanian official as Iohannis on his birth certificate, in 1989, he married ethnic Romanian Carmen Lăzurcă, an English teacher at the Gheorghe Lazăr National College in Sibiu. Iohannis is a member of the Evangelical Church of Augustan Confession in Romania, the German-speaking Lutheran church in Transylvania. He joined the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania in 1990, and served as a member of its board of education in Transylvania from 1997, in 2001, he was elected President of the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania. In 2000, the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania in Sibiu decided to back him as a candidate for mayor and he is the first ethnic German mayor of a Romanian city since Albert Dörr, who served from 1940 to 1945. The small German minority is popular in Romania, where they are viewed as hard-working, precise. Many Romanians also remember that the country experienced some of its best moments under German kings over a century ago, throughout his tenure as mayor, he has worked to restore the towns infrastructure and to tighten the city administration. Iohannis is also credited with turning the city into one of Romanias most popular tourist destinations thanks to the extensive renovation of the old downtown. During his first term, Iohannis worked with a city council that had a social democrat majority, since 2004, during his second and third terms, his own party, FDGR, had the majority
