Romania’s President Ignores the Will of the People: No Boycott for Austria

Romania’s President, Klaus Johannis, seems to ignore the will of its own people. During the press conference on Wednesday, December 14, he announced that Romania would not boycott Austria.

The Internal Affairs Ministers have failed to approve our entry into Schengen. Now the question is how do we proceed? Romania’s entry into Schengen remains the main objective. In reality, we have two problems: The attitude of Austria, which is reserved now but previously voted against. The Netherlands’ vote was mixed, for Romania, it was yes, and for Bulgaria, it was half no. These are the issues that need to be addressed and resolved. This moment can be handled in one key with diplomacy. Everything else is excluded. I have heard opinions and advice in the last few days. There will be no boycott of Austria by the Romanian state. Such a thing is out of the question.

Klaus Joahnnis on boycotting Austria

The statement comes in a very delicate moment – the Austrian companies are boycotted for the negative vote of their country to Romania’s accession to Schengen. The vote keeps Romania out of the free economic area.

Most Romanians understood the importance of this movement and boycott the Austrian companies. Also, different politicians asked for Austria to be boycotted wherever possible at the political level.

Unfortunately, for the people who believe in this #boycottAustria movement, their own president delimits from this sort of action. Notably, Johannis is of german ethnicity, and his friendship with German-speaking countries’ leaders is famous.

Will Romanians obey the request of their president? Most probably not, and they will continue boycotting Austrian products and companies.

Johannis lost his popularity and is now at the end of his last term as country leader. His failure to deliver the expected results made the people lose faith in his abilities to help Romania or serve the Romanian interests. This is why people have started reacting on social media networks and disapprove of his request. People see his action as another attempt to please the Western powers or as an obedient action to orders received from the European Union leaders.

Regardless of the real reason behind Romania’s president’s statement, Johannis will lose another chunk of his already dwindling popularity. The consequence is his actions hit on the governing party, the Liberals, to the gain of the Euro-sceptics and Nationalists.