Former President of the Constitutional Court Augustin Zegrean explained on Monday, after Klaus Iohannis announced his resignation from office, that the interim position can be taken over by the president of the Senate or the speaker of the Chamber of Deputies.

„The Constitutional Court must declare the vacancy of office, and send a letter to the Government and Parliament to establish who should fulfills the position of interim president. The Constitution says that this position may be fulfilled by the president of the Senate or the speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, but it is not a binding order. If the president of the Senate refuses, it can be the speaker of the Chamber of Deputies,” Augustin Zegrean told AGERPRES.

He added that the interim president’s duties include „almost everything the elected president does”.

„As of February 12, the position is declared vacant and we enter the interim situation. The interim president can do almost everything the president does. There are two or three duties he cannot fulfill: he cannot dissolve Parliament and he cannot send messages to Parliament. The Constitution says that in this situation, from that day [the day of the resignation – editor’s note] the Government has three months during which it is required to organize presidential elections. But as the date of the presidential elections has already been set and it falls within these three months, I think that we are in a normal situation,” said the former president of the CCR.

Klaus Iohannis announced his resignation as President of Romania on Monday. He said he will leave office on February 12.

Klaus Iohannis said that the decision comes in the context in which Parliament on Monday started the procedure to suspend him from office.

AGERPRES