The Senate and the Chamber of Deputies will meet on Monday at 12:00 for a joint session to declare the post of director of the Romanian Intelligence Service vacant following the resignation of Eduard Helwig. General Rezvan Ionescu, the first deputy of the institution, will temporarily head the institution.

According to the law establishing the Intelligence Service of Romania, “the director of the Intelligence Service of Romania has a first deputy who is also his legal deputy” (Article 24, Law 14/1992).

Last week, Eduard Helwig announced that he was resigning as director of the Romanian Intelligence Service.

“We have a bad custom that those who occupy positions of power do not leave them until the last moment, perhaps under duress. Most of those who hold power do not relinquish it when they have achieved their goals, for various reasons. I, I personally, I believe that such a step is necessary. This is, first of all, a gesture of democratic health, which I have clearly argued since the first year of my mandate. It is healthy for democracy, for the balance of power in the state. as the director of the intelligence service, having limited in time mandate. Rigidity in the position is not good, it can lead to setting the wrong goals for the institution, to losing contact with social reality, to confusing the position with the person who holds it. I do not want this for myself, nor for the institution that is more valuable than any director she’s had,” Helwig said last Monday.

Eduard Helwig’s resignation comes in the context of 2024, a year in which Romania will hold general, European Parliament, local, parliamentary and presidential elections. Eduard Hellving’s mandate would have ended in accordance with custom with that of President Klaus Iohannis.

It should be noted that Helwig’s resignation has given rise to various scenarios and rumors in the political arena, according to which he would like to return to politics: either back to the PNL, or that he may create a new political formation.

Virgil Citzak, the liberal mayor of Konstanz, believes that after the resignation of the head of the SRI, Eduard Helwig will return to the PNL and run for the European Parliament elections next year. On the Political Insider show, which was broadcast on Prima TV on Saturday, Chitsak was asked how he took the resignation of Eduard Helwig as head of the SRI.

“Honestly, I think that Mr. Helwig wants to make a political career,” replied Virgil Chitsak.

Following the resignation of the head of the SRI, President Klaus Iohannis sent a letter to the President of the Senate, Nicolae Chuke, and the interim President of the Chamber of Deputies, Alfred Simonis, asking them to take note of Helwig’s resignation. the position of director of the Research Institute.

“Based on the provisions of Article 65, Paragraph 2, Letter h of the Romanian Constitution and Article 23 of Law No. 14/1992 on the Organization and Functioning of the Romanian Intelligence Service, as amended, I propose to take note of the removal from the post of SRI Director Eduard Helwig and to announce this the position is vacant, after which the parliament will make an appropriate decision,” said the document sent by Yohannis.