NLP Member of the European Parliament Siegfried Muresan said on Wednesday that Klaus Iohannis is currently the only official candidate for the post of NATO Secretary General, while a possible candidacy for the Prime Minister of the Netherlands is being discussed informally. According to him, the decision will come in a few weeks and will be announced and celebrated at the NATO summit in July in the United States, News.ro reports.

Siegfried Mureşan said that he was not surprised by President Klaus Iohannis’ announcement of his candidacy for NATO leadership, and stressed that it was a good, reliable and justified approach for Romania, since “as far as we manage to have influence at the European level, the key positions occupied by Romania, the better.”

The President of Romania has a chance to get a leadership position at the European level

Regarding his chances of reaching a European position, the MEP from the NLP showed that “politicians in the face of such competition are divided into politicians who have a chance and politicians who don’t have a chance.”

“It is clear that the President of Romania is one of the few politicians in Romania who has a chance to get a high position at the European level and has a chance to get a position at this level. I think there are chances, discussions will continue, on all positions. The position of the NATO Secretary General will probably be decided in the next period, we do not know exactly when, and the rest of the management positions at the level of the EU institutions will be decided in the light of the election results,” he explained. Muresan.

The candidacy of Mark Rutte, who will be Johannis’ counter-candidate, is not official

Siegfried Muresan also revealed that President Klaus Iohannis announced in an extremely serious manner that he is officially a candidate for the post of NATO Secretary General.

“At the moment, he is the only official candidate participating in the elections. The possible candidacy of the Prime Minister of the Netherlands is discussed informally, but is not formalized, like the President of Romania. At the moment, he is the only candidate, officially,” stressed the liberal MEP. According to Siegfried Muresan, the decision will be made in the coming weeks, given that an important NATO summit will be held in Washington in July.

“The mandate of the current secretary-general ends this fall, so there will be a decision this spring that will be announced and celebrated at the summit,” he said.

We will remind you that last week Klaus Iohannis announced his candidacy for the post of NATO chairman at a specially convened press conference in Bucharest. This is in the conditions when the head of the Dutch government, Mark Rutte, was considered the favorite for the post of NATO Secretary General.

Hungary would be the first country to express its support for Klaus Iohannis, on the other hand, it was clear that it did not support Rutte.

Romania has informed its NATO allies that it intends to nominate Klaus Iohannis for the position of Secretary General of the Alliance, in the context of which the United States, Great Britain and France announced their support for Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte for the post of Secretary General of NATO. .

The name of Klaus Iohannis has also been mentioned as a successor to Jens Stoltenberg as the head of NATO in the past. Before the extension of the powers of the current NATO Secretary General, the president was on the list of possible successors. Moreover, in 2022, President Klaus Iohannis did not rule out the possibility of becoming Jens Stoltenberg’s successor at the head of NATO.

The German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) wrote that the President of Romania will not have a chance.

Read also:

• What the German press writes about Johannis’ candidacy for NATO leadership: “It splits the Alliance”

• Klaus Iohannis, who is competing with Prime Minister Mark Rutte for the NATO presidency. When the general secretary of the alliance will be appointed

• Klaus Johannis, Politico’s “decalogue” with his vision for the future of NATO

• ​How is the Secretary General of NATO elected and in what context did Johannis announce his candidacy for the position of Secretary General of the Alliance
• “Teflon Mark” in the Netherlands. Who is Mark Rutte, Johannis’ counter-candidate for the post of NATO leader?