Who is Klaus Iohannis?

 

via Romania Insider - Klaus Iohannis, has been serving as mayor of Sibiu, one of the largest cities in Romania, since 2000.

He is credited with turning his city into one of Romania’s most popular tourist destinations. He also contributed do having Sibiu named European Capital of Culture in 2007.

Iohannis, 55, was born in a family of Transylvanian Saxons. His parents emigrated to Germany in 1992 and got German citizenship.

Klaus Iohannis, however, stayed in Romania. He graduated at the Faculty of Physics of the Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca and then worked as a physics teacher until 1997. From 1997 to 2000, he served as deputy general school inspector and then general inspector of the Sibiu county, coordinating the public schools in the county.

In 2000, he was first elected mayor of Sibiu, representing the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania. He got re-elected by a wide margin in 2004, 2008 and 2012.

In October 2009, a grand coalition made of the National Liberal Party (PNL), the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Hungarian Democratic Union (UDMR), who were at that time in opposition, proposed to President Traian Basescu to name Iohannis Prime Minister, but Basescu refused.

Klaus Iohannis returned into national-level politics in Romania at the beginning of 2013, when he joined the National Liberal Party (PNL) and was elected first vice president of the party. In the beginning of 2014, PNL nominated Iohannis for the position of Administration Minister and First Deputy Prime Minister, but PM Victor Ponta refused to make the nomination official. This led to the break-up of the Governing union, the Social Liberal Union (USL), which was made of PNL and Ponta’s PSD.

In June 2014, Klaus Iohannis was named president of PNL, and became the party’s main candidate for the presidential elections. PNL then made an alliance with the Liberal Democratic Party (PDL) to support Iohannis’ presidential bid.

He is married to Carmen Iohannis, an English teacher at the Gheorghe Lazar National College in Sibiu. They have no children. [5]

 

What was Mr Iohannis' position on the stray dog killing law before becoming President of Romania?

 

In an article published on 5th of September, 2013 - shortly after Traian Băsescu proposed the current 'Slaughter Law' that sentences all homeless dogs to death after 14 days, if not adopted, claimed, or perished before - Mr Iohannis, at that time Mayor of Sibiu - said that he would not agree with the massive euthanasia of dogs, and that euthanasia should only be considered for very sick and aggressive dogs, adding that such an approach was "downright barbaric".

According to Mr Iohannis, the stray dogs issue was well managed in his town. The dogs were taken from the streets, sterilized, kept in the local public shelter for two weeks, after which, if no one adopts them, they would be returned to their territory. Mr Iohannis further added that "sterilized dogs would disappear naturally but that it would take a certain time".

The article further states that, according to a press release from the Mayor's Office in 2009, there were 6,612 dogs living on the streets of Sibiu when the municipality started the sterilization campaign in collaboration with local NGOS. Mr Iohannis estimated their population at the time the interview was conducted, at 3,000 dogs. [6]

Mr Iohannis' position on the 'Slaughter Law' and the fact that he objected to the killing of the dogs in his town after the introduction of this barbaric law, has certainly influenced very many animal loving people who voted for him. 

Fact is that Mr Iohannis is the first Romanian President ever who has the right vision on stray animal population control, and which is C-N-R (catch-neuter-return) - exactly like he successfully did in his town, Sibiu. His predecessor, Traian Băsescu -- who introduced the draconian 'Slaughter Law',  totally ignoring that according to world experts' opinion, including the WHO, 'catch & kill' policies are ineffective and offer only a temporary "solution" given that they address the effect but NOT the cause -- launched a campaign that led to the extermination of about 144,000 stray dogs in the capital alone, spending almost 9,000,000 Euros (62 Euros per dog) during the period from 2001-2007 when he was still mayor of Bucharest. Although the result was abject failure, he continued on the same erroneous path and introduced the current Kill-Law in September 2013.

Mr Iohannis has most assuredly a 'heart for animals' and we are confident that he won't forget that he is where he is now also because of the votes and hopes of the Romanian animal loving people, and that we will soon see an end to the needless slaughter of innocent dogs, and the stray animals issue in Romania being solved in a humane and civilized manner.

We wish to express our deepest respect and also congratulate Mr Iohannis again for becoming the new President of Romania. We rejoice with the people of Romania that this new and historic day came to their country, and we watch as the sun rises on a new tomorrow, on a new Romania - for society and for ALL sentient beings.

We are sure that Mr Iohannis will leave his mark in history as a brave, honest and caring President of Romania.