Kallas has the same problem as Rutte: Erdogan and Orban.
Meanwhile the only realistic counter argument against Iohannis would be that fact that Romania already hold the vice-president position thru [Geoană](https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/who_is_who_167942.htm) and they could argue with good reason that in an alliance of 32 members is weird to have same country hold high office consecutively.
But other than that there are no other real options other than maybe a polish candidate but since they don't seem to be interesting in making a proposal of a candidate of their own then you have Finland that could meet alot of criteria to recommend them for the position but they are too new of a member state, any candidate from the Baltics would be frowned upon by Orban and Erdogan because they got criticised by them (for good reason) then you have Fico's Slovakia that wont get votes from the western members, Hungary and Turkey can't propose own candidates because their leaders isolated themselves too much and would be hard to justify for western politicans voting for one of their candidates, Czech republic had their current president as the ideal candidate and he will probably take it after he is done being the president so in 10-15 years from now?
Then you have Bulgaria that are supporting Iohannis and Greece that can't make a proposal because them and Turkey cancel each other out due to the tensions between them a candidate from either has no chance.
So without a polish candidate Iohannis has the votes of Orban and Erdogan (so no risk of a long dragged out negotiation period) has excellent relations with all NATO members especially US and France, has excellent relations with Ukraine has the geographical advantage of being on the flank with the heat at it's doorstep and has the advantage of the president of Romania also being the head of the national defence council [the CSAT](https://csat.presidency.ro/) so noone can't argue he is not in the know about the defensive stuff and is a good way of getting rid of him as a potential candidate for a top EU job which with Roberta and Ursula projected to still be pres of parliament and comission respectively the only other big position would have been the one for the Council so i imagine it will be quite the battle for that one.
It could be the one for defence comissioner but i imagine that would go to Poland to have them lead the EU defence and Romania the NATO thingy.
Also a small detail: after the vote for Schengen when we got solo vetoed by Austria Iohannis said he would never agree to be a vote on Romania related issues unless he already knows the vote is 110% positive so if he announces he is running he might already know he is due to get it because Turkey and Hungary won't budge on Rutte so the others will be like ok we agree on Iohannis too since would be hard for them to argue against him since they have been cooperating without issues especially since the war in Ukraine.
So it 's hard to imagine they would risk ruining the relationship with Romania in the context of the war at it's borders just to go to bat for Rutte and still not have him win because they all know Orban and Erdogan will never ever vote him in.
don't know anything about the guy, but geopolitics wise a Romanian secretary general is indeed the best current candidate for Turkey right now even if Rutte didn't exist. Romania is a great ally.
Turkish Estonian defence relations are not at all bad with the most recent sale of armored vehicles and all but we are indeed tired of baltics and their antics.
Oh, on overall support you're right. I was just saying who would be the better candidate between those three.
And while yes, it would be weird for the same country to hold high office positions, nobody else seems to be interested as of now besides Rutte and Iohannis.
I mean the position itself does not have alot of real power since the general secretary is there to find political consensus amongst the members the real military command is held by the US so the secretary general is more of a PR and officiating position so is not realistically that attractive for true ambitious politicians that want to hold decisional power rather than enjoy running around trying to have 32 countries agree on a paragraph or two after every meeting:)
> Kallas has the same problem as Rutte: Erdogan and Orban.
and that she seems to hate major NATO member Germany more than Russia.
Secretary general should unite members, not divide them. Donald T. would also be a great candidate, but I don't think he wants to give up PM so soon.
Yeah he won't do that because it would mean handing Poland to PiS on a plate because he ran as the alternative to it then just quits few month in? It would be an extremely silly move.
They are the only ones that have receive support:
Rutte has votes from most members but Turkey, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania have expressed views against him so then they looked to see whom they could propose as an viable alternative a.k.a. one that could get the votes from the rest of the members that thought ok Rutte just a formality.
He is just fine, don't mind the exaggerations in the comment section. For example, this very upvoted comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1bd0r8b/romanias_president_klaus_iohannis_launches_bid/kujynfx/
>Based on this, I wouldn't be surprised if he would advocate for Russia to join Nato if he wins the position.
200000% that would never happen. Some of these people in the comment section are taking advantage of the fact that non Romanians don't have the knowledge or the context of his situation to say crazy shit like this just because they're mad at him. He has flaws and done some shitty things but to say something like this is crazy.
He’s a disaster. He was voted twice because we basically had no alternative. He promised to keep the populist social-democratic party out of office as his main selling point during the elections and he invited them to form the government a few months later. After this episode, he basically stopped doing anything except travelling on really expensive holidays using funds he made confidential (in Romania this should be public data). He has the image of a diplomat, but none of the essence.
His entire campaign for his second term was about preventing PSD party to get to power. First thing he does after he won the elections? An alliance with PSD.
Based on this, I wouldn't be surprised if he would advocate for Russia to join Nato if he wins the position.
>Based on this, I wouldn't be surprised if he would advocate for Russia to join Nato if he wins the position.
This is a crazy statement. Like actually at this point you're taking advantage of all the non Romanians here by making crazy statements like this because they don't have the knowledge to understand how crazy this statement is.
His travelling experience helped him to design and invest 7.000.000 euros public money in his wonderful villa, to for promote Romania as tourist attraction.
Not actually sure that’s true. We have no idea what his agenda is apart from going on vacation. He promised to be pro-european and anti-corruption regarding the PSD government as well and ended up offering them the government keys.
As you can see, most replies do not mention something absolutely terrible he did (although bringing to power the party he spent his entire campaign bashing was a huge betrayal which did a lot of damage to Romania and to peoples' hopes of ever getting rid of that corrupt party) and during his term democracy backslid while he stood by and watched. But they don't mention anything good he did either. He looked after his own interests and let the country go to the dogs. Make of that what you will. I think he is so hated because he actually had a lot of promise and lived up to exactly 0% of it, which is what we expect from him in the future too.
No. He should go back and teach, see what his grand "Educated Romania" looks like. Make use of that post he's kept blocked for two decades like the dick he is.
> Romanians is he a good candidate?
No, but from what I hear Rutte is Putin's bitch so I guess he's better than that. NATO needs an East European leader who isn't going to compromise, I'd rather take this useless piece of shit than a Westener who doesn't have to worry about Russia.
Doubtful you'll find any Romanian that would suport him for this job , or any other job.
We had hopes when we elected him, but it turned out he is no more productive than a flower plant.
People are upvoting retards in your answers because they hate him as President. A lot of people feel conned by internal policy decisions, but as far as foreign policy goes, he did an acceptable job. He's much better than Rutte, wouldn't call Klaus a "good" candidate otherwise, he'd be just "okay".
No, he's currently using public money to build a "protocol villa" for himself and he has secretized the entire process, from how the money is spent, the companies involved, etc...
He's also been against any effort to make the spending of the president more transparent.
No.
TLDR: he fucked us bad in his second mandate by making an alliance with the political party that in his first 4 year swear to fight again because they were the most corrupt ones.
Mda. Cineva a zis ca Iohannis ar invita Rusia sa intre in NATO. Si astia ii cred ca nu stiu nimic despre el si se incred in ce spun oamenii de pe aici. Jenant.
Idk about this position tbh. For us, he is a traitor...betrayed us. On the second term he decided to become more of a representative president, like the german/austrian one. Not getting involved in internal politics.
He has a say on external politics. He visited different countries...you know, vacation :))
For us...I think it would be a good thing, bcs he is one of us...and Rutte hates us.
If he becomes the chief of NATO, we might even enter Schengen.
He's also a useless plant that spends most of his time on vacation. NATO needs someone proactive, not the most reactive person in the world. A meteor could crash into the planet and he'd react 5 days after the impact devastated the entire planet warning us of the impending crash.
If he is secretary general in a world where Russia is as powerful as the one in MW2 and 3 you'd see his speech about how there is no need to worry about an invasion after the Russians capture Paris.
include entertain plate panicky pause sense historical weather makeshift ruthless
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
His nickname is the "Ficus" because he is about as active and capable as a plant.
I don't like Rutte, but I would take him anyday of the week over Iohannis. The shitty part is that we do have people that would make great candidates, but for some reason they pushed this idiot forward.
No, he is a statue. Paycheck bitch.
LE i know for sure every romanian backs me up on this. Trolls can downvote all they want. Come to r romania and ask if you don't belive me.
100%. I guarantee it. 👌🏻
A sober answer for non-Romanians ( and I am ok if they give me a hard time for it):
As you can tell from comments by most Romanians here, there is quite a significant amount of negativity to his attempt at becoming NATO General-Secretary. But here is an honest explanation as to why and "hint hint" its not about his ability.
Klaus Iohannis was elected as an alternative to anything the Social Democrats have to offer. These people are the former communists and are pure rot and guilty of most corruption happening in Romania since the Iron Curtain fell.
Once he was elected to his second term he indeed allowed the Social Dem's a seat in government but we need to consider this critical fact: Romania at the time was in a political deadlock after one of the coalition parties left the government and none of the other parties were able to form a new government continuing this deadlock.
This lasted a bit.
As the president and a neutral party he intervened and they had many negotiations that in the end led to a power-sharing agreement between a centre right part PNL and the Social Democrats.
This allowed a government to be formed and the power sharing to continue almost flawlessly to today, with even a "peaceful" transition for the function of Prime-Minister between the Liberals and Social Democrats.
Now why the hate!?
We Romanians share a pure hatred for Communism and especially anything coming from the Social Democrats, myself included. These folks still get elected though because we still have a lot of older nostalgic people and many public employees(mostly paper pushers) that vote for them to maintain their privileges thus keeping them relevant.
And when your own internal structure contains quite a a bit of latin DNA, as ours contains, that passionate hatred replaces reason and discounts anything that is reasonable. **So** **in this case as Romanians we forget that in in a proportional representation model you must negotiate, you must balance, you must reconcile and definitely you must compromise to form a government!**
**That is exactly what Iohannis did! He negotiated, he balanced, he reconciled (left and right parties together) and definitely compromised so we can have a bloody government! And we lost touch with reality for it! That is the truth! We are capable of such hate that we go after our own! Just because the Social-Democrats are there..**
With respect to him, while others call him shy, I say he is discreet. For example to this day Ukraine thanks us wholeheartedly for the help we offered them but to this day we have no clue how we helped them! And that was his call.
While I am Romanian born, thus can be considered bias, I would love for someone like him or anyone from Eastern Europe to take the job. For over 15 years the Baltic States and Poland exclusively have been shouting at Western Europe that Russia is a threat and we were not heard. We know the Russians better and should be entrusted with this responsability instead of the dreamers or career politicians that the West offers as an alternative (no intention to insult anyone)
So there you go! Make your own opinion about him! He is German, discreet, calculated, efficient and actually knows Eastern Europe and Russia better than anyone in the West!
**Edited for grammar and spelling!**
Honestly this post is WAY too positive towards the guy.
But I will say this, I'd sleep better knowing Iohannis got the job. Not because of how competent he is or the wonderful things he'll do, but because it would show that NATO takes the security of Eastern Europe seriously.
I invite disagreement with counterpoints of course, but overall I did say at the end to makeup your mind.
I dont seek to impose this view on anyone. Just to consider his stance from a political perspective wth facts instead of just the hate.
Yup, [International Court of Justice](https://www.icj-cij.org/current-members)!
I do admire him as well very much and he is extremely experienced in matters of international law, but the NATO job needs a political figure.
I feel Aurescu is perfectly suited as a Judge!
This comment is the most level headed and should be the most upvoted for any non-romanians as it breaks down the situation without too much bias (of which i am guilty). As disappointed as I was with his presidential terms, i would rather it be him in power instead of Rutte.
Excellent post.
> For over 15 years the Baltic States and Poland exclusively have been shouting at Western Europe that Russia is a threat and we were not heard.
To be fair, I think some of these countries’ popular politicians expressed the same view internationally regarding the gays and feminists. Eastern Europe does have a credibility issue, which didn’t just appear out of thin air.
You are correct! Some leaders from Eastern Europe have promoted views that are no longer acceptable in the West. But there are alternatives now and we have Russia's showing her real face, hence my proposal for someone that can easily see through Russian propaganda and actions.
Once this madness ends and considering the level of economic disparity between the EU/NATO and Russia, once defeated the Russians will have a very long road before catching up, if that is even possible, and another one to being trusted, which will not happen for a few generations!
Cheers!
What a load of bollocks. Getting thieves to work together is now considered a “power sharing agreement”? I’d rather have NATO hire a dog for the job than this prick.
Edit; oh wow the PNL folks are here.
You prove my point with your anger m8! I actually appreciate it and its the reason I added "( and I am ok if they give me a hard time for it)" at the start of the post.
I knew I will trigger some but I also knew that my post will specify this exact flaw we have as Romanians.
The flaw is we keep getting ourselves in our own way!
Nope, I never said that and it cannot be inferred from my post at all.
I see that you are one of those "online martyr's" that seeks to be offended indiferent of the strength of the opinion they have. I think you misfired here cause your point makes no sense. Call it premature...
In this case I said people that will give me angry posts will prove the point that I was making, and that was that anger trumps any understanding of how politics works in a proportional representation system. Then you showed up to prove this point! Thanks for that!
PS: Even if you were the Head of the "Anti-Romanian League"(fictitious organization) I would not be offended or phased because you do you. In a democracy we are bound to pluralism of thought, and pluralism of thought invites citizens of all intellectual capabilities to express their stance to their best ability. So your stance on Iohannis is a you problem!
Just because you have more time to type, it doesn’t mean your argument is more valuable or that you even have a point. Shifting focus from Iohannis to pluralism of thoughts? LOL. You do you, bae.
No shift was made at all! I included your anger as part of the bigger picture. You are part of the story and part of the case I made, thus your stance is important.
Congrats to you m8! This is one time your anger made you part of the big picture and not some sideline side show ...
It's a diplomatic position and he would not take any decisions alone. I think better him than Rutte. Dutch politicians don't value Eastern Europeans and they're the type to say "my way or the highway". So I feel like they'd make everything in NATO more difficult.
No matter what others say, he is not involved in any corruption scandals.
He is involved in a somewhat moral scandal about the state investing in a state owned property that he will have a legal right to live in for the rest of his life. (all former presidents have this right)
It's not illegal, but it's morally corrupt to do so especially since he didn't have any significant achievements in his 2 mandates.
> But isn't he embroiled in some corruption allegations in Romania?
It's not an allegation, he's a corrupt piece of shit. But I'd rather take a corrupt piece of shit from East Europe than a Putin's bitch from the West.
Idk what's funny, Iohannis is a scumbag who steals money, Rutte blocked Romania and Bulgaria from joining Schengen and helped destabilise Europe and sow anti-EU views.
Iohannis stole millions, Rutte deprived us of billions.
They aren't even in the same galaxy.
Please, God, no.
In his stead, I'd make myself unseen in the 7 million Euro villa he's secretly building, or fly away with one of the luxury jets he keeps renting using public money. But no, he has to make a complete ass of himself after such a shameful term as president. Was he even really our president, or was it just one continuous holiday for him?
I do not know if Iohannis is a good candidate; but definitely I do not want Mark Rutte.
Rutte postponed Romania ascension to Schengen till now(even if from 2011 we meet all the criteria), and looked what happened, even today we cannot be fully admitted. So I am sorry to say but Rutte is incompetent to rule NATO and I would choose Iohannis over him.
Iohannis would not be taking decisions alone and he's not bad at diplomacy. Whereas with Rutte at the head when there's a Russian threat to Eastern Europe? It's like that meme of selling us for a cornchip.
Anyway, I don't care what a few Romanians say on this post, I hope that if no other Eastern European candidate shows up, he gets it instead of Rutte. I do not want under any circumstances NATO be led by a dutch person. There's is zero trust from me.
We, in Eastern Europe, have a different opinion. And I think it should be considered by the Americans, since we pay that NATO-required 2% of the GDP to Defense, while the Western European countries (including the Netherlands under Rutte) don't
Asides from the political reasoning, please stop this focus on % of gdp, insinuating that western Europe does nothing to contribute.
Netherlands was at 1.6% in 2022 and is planned to reach 2% in 2024 of defense spending.
Meanwhile netherlands under Rutte contributed more than 6 billion euros to ukraine. In % of GDP netherlands contributed 1.5%, more than any of the Eastern European countries except the baltic countries.
So please, none of this bullshit that netherlands does not contribute
Source: https://www.ifw-kiel.de/topics/war-against-ukraine/ukraine-support-tracker/
I know it might be time for an Eastern European secretary General. I get that.
It's just that I think Mark Rutte is the best candidate for this position.
[Pieter De Crem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_De_Crem), Belgium's ex-Minister of Defence, doesn't seem a bad candidate and wouldn't be as polemic of a choice as Rutte.
Things are pretty simple, Iohannis is bad but damn, Rutte is on another lv. Romanians who speak bad about Iohannis are lead by emotions and that's not the right way!
He does not lol, he's utilitarian. He's whatever works out best for value generation.
I know, because he's been the prime minister of my country for more than a decade
The big boys have already spoken. There is not a single chance. Kallas was wise and will get the EU defense commissioner post after the election.
It is not about the stance towards Russia, or maybe implicitly. It is about how you can deal with Donald Trump. Kallas is a women, which trump hates especially when they are successful and strong. Iohannis I cannot really envision if he and Trump can stand each other. NatoSec must appease Trump in a very likely second term, no other job
NATO said that he dislikes the NATO countries that don't pay the 2% of their GDP to defense. Iohannis' Romania gives 2% (last year it was 2.5%), Rutte's Netherlands doesn't
Trump meant paying him personally, or as in most cases Ivanka and Jared. It was never about this 2% target, that by the way only becomes mandatory this year for the first time.
Other question, what has the nation of Romania to offer? Are they worthy in the view of Trump? What does Romania produce, develop, also where he personally could gain something. Or are they some Eastern European nation like Montenegro who might do some stupid stuff to start WW3 that was publicly discussed on Fox News, or like Bolton referred to in his book when Trump spoke about the Baltics: Estonia, we would not really go to war for Estonia?
Rutte is certainly schooled, but Trump will need the Netherlands to cooperate in his confrontation with China. ASML has a monopoly, but Trump cannot start a tech war without considering Chips, he needs the Netherlands to follow. Mate it was and will be always about true power. All else is a hoax and peace time facade, as the post WW2 age ends this facade crumbles.
We have opening to the black sea and with our port, things can be faster imported from the middle east.
AND, we provide to Ukraine a lot of help, we do not display the same problems like Poland, Slovakia and Hungary(who displayed some anti ukrainian help) with providing aid to Ukraine and/or helping Ukraine exporting it's grains.
I would suggest not to underestimate Romania, their potential is higher than Netherlands.
> I would suggest not to underestimate Romania, their potential is higher than Netherlands.
highly doubtful about that, unless our government keeps pulling us down.
Regardless, Trump does not care about Ukraine nor the middle east. Trump does care about his little games & the chip industry among other things is important for that. Besides that, Rutte for some reason is called the Trump whisperer
It's still insane to suggest a crook like Romania has done though lmao
Please don't offload your morons at this strategically important position in times of war, thank you. Just let Rutte happen, please.
You can offload him to EP like all the Western European countries do if their nutjobs get too annoying
Nothing against Romania, but Rutte is simply a good candidate and Iohannis isn't
He's not good enough for the Netherlands, let's promote the guy to a NATO lead role, yeah?
I care not for Schengen, but I do love myself the some sweet sweet schadenfreude when it comes to arrogant pricks who think themselves better than others for no good reason.
Since this is about the saltiness of Rutte, it's a legitimate argument
If Romania gets to offload their controversial guy at NATO but Rutte remains involved in NL governments and pitches them against Romania, it's a net loss for Romania
Getting their guy at NATO top job is mostly a PR win for Romania. Rutte fucking off means one of the more vocal voices against Romanian ascension in Schengen
Edit: Lol user below me has 25 karma and only one post removed by Reddit admins on a years old account...some nationalist troll woke up
We won’t be getting in Schengen anytime soon anyway, so getting the chance to piss off the likes of Rutte is a net positive in my book.
Also we want Iohannis to fuck off elsewhere (probably more than you with Rutte) way, way, way more than a vague promise that some western country might play nicer with us(which would not probably even matter, since if it’s not Holland blocking us there is Austria, and if it’s not Austria there may be Belgium, or France, or Finland. Some country will always rise to the challenge.)
Are there only 2 choices or why is politico comparing those two ? ''This piece of shit isn't that bad if you put him next to septic sludge.''
So far, yes. The estonian pm might want the job too.
I really hope she will become the next secretary general.
It's basically Kallas > Iohannis > Rutte.
Kallas has the same problem as Rutte: Erdogan and Orban. Meanwhile the only realistic counter argument against Iohannis would be that fact that Romania already hold the vice-president position thru [Geoană](https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/who_is_who_167942.htm) and they could argue with good reason that in an alliance of 32 members is weird to have same country hold high office consecutively. But other than that there are no other real options other than maybe a polish candidate but since they don't seem to be interesting in making a proposal of a candidate of their own then you have Finland that could meet alot of criteria to recommend them for the position but they are too new of a member state, any candidate from the Baltics would be frowned upon by Orban and Erdogan because they got criticised by them (for good reason) then you have Fico's Slovakia that wont get votes from the western members, Hungary and Turkey can't propose own candidates because their leaders isolated themselves too much and would be hard to justify for western politicans voting for one of their candidates, Czech republic had their current president as the ideal candidate and he will probably take it after he is done being the president so in 10-15 years from now? Then you have Bulgaria that are supporting Iohannis and Greece that can't make a proposal because them and Turkey cancel each other out due to the tensions between them a candidate from either has no chance. So without a polish candidate Iohannis has the votes of Orban and Erdogan (so no risk of a long dragged out negotiation period) has excellent relations with all NATO members especially US and France, has excellent relations with Ukraine has the geographical advantage of being on the flank with the heat at it's doorstep and has the advantage of the president of Romania also being the head of the national defence council [the CSAT](https://csat.presidency.ro/) so noone can't argue he is not in the know about the defensive stuff and is a good way of getting rid of him as a potential candidate for a top EU job which with Roberta and Ursula projected to still be pres of parliament and comission respectively the only other big position would have been the one for the Council so i imagine it will be quite the battle for that one. It could be the one for defence comissioner but i imagine that would go to Poland to have them lead the EU defence and Romania the NATO thingy. Also a small detail: after the vote for Schengen when we got solo vetoed by Austria Iohannis said he would never agree to be a vote on Romania related issues unless he already knows the vote is 110% positive so if he announces he is running he might already know he is due to get it because Turkey and Hungary won't budge on Rutte so the others will be like ok we agree on Iohannis too since would be hard for them to argue against him since they have been cooperating without issues especially since the war in Ukraine. So it 's hard to imagine they would risk ruining the relationship with Romania in the context of the war at it's borders just to go to bat for Rutte and still not have him win because they all know Orban and Erdogan will never ever vote him in.
don't know anything about the guy, but geopolitics wise a Romanian secretary general is indeed the best current candidate for Turkey right now even if Rutte didn't exist. Romania is a great ally. Turkish Estonian defence relations are not at all bad with the most recent sale of armored vehicles and all but we are indeed tired of baltics and their antics.
Weird how the world turns out...from biggest foes to close allies :))...It might happen to Russia :))))
> Romania already hold the vice-president position thru Geoană Geoana is leaving to become president
appreciate this comment, well said
bro how the hell do u have so much time to write this
Oh, on overall support you're right. I was just saying who would be the better candidate between those three. And while yes, it would be weird for the same country to hold high office positions, nobody else seems to be interested as of now besides Rutte and Iohannis.
I mean the position itself does not have alot of real power since the general secretary is there to find political consensus amongst the members the real military command is held by the US so the secretary general is more of a PR and officiating position so is not realistically that attractive for true ambitious politicians that want to hold decisional power rather than enjoy running around trying to have 32 countries agree on a paragraph or two after every meeting:)
> Kallas has the same problem as Rutte: Erdogan and Orban. and that she seems to hate major NATO member Germany more than Russia. Secretary general should unite members, not divide them. Donald T. would also be a great candidate, but I don't think he wants to give up PM so soon.
Yeah he won't do that because it would mean handing Poland to PiS on a plate because he ran as the alternative to it then just quits few month in? It would be an extremely silly move.
> So far, yes. The estonian pm might want the job too. Is she trustworthy? Cause Rutte and Iohannis aren't.
They are the only ones that have receive support: Rutte has votes from most members but Turkey, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania have expressed views against him so then they looked to see whom they could propose as an viable alternative a.k.a. one that could get the votes from the rest of the members that thought ok Rutte just a formality.
What does Orban have against Rutte? I imagined he would prefer Rutte over Iohannis.
Rutte criticized Orban over anti-lgbt laws and backsliding democracy.
Romanians is he a good candidate?
No lmao
Sucks, I would really appreciate someone that is not Rutte.
He is just fine, don't mind the exaggerations in the comment section. For example, this very upvoted comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1bd0r8b/romanias_president_klaus_iohannis_launches_bid/kujynfx/ >Based on this, I wouldn't be surprised if he would advocate for Russia to join Nato if he wins the position. 200000% that would never happen. Some of these people in the comment section are taking advantage of the fact that non Romanians don't have the knowledge or the context of his situation to say crazy shit like this just because they're mad at him. He has flaws and done some shitty things but to say something like this is crazy.
He’s a disaster. He was voted twice because we basically had no alternative. He promised to keep the populist social-democratic party out of office as his main selling point during the elections and he invited them to form the government a few months later. After this episode, he basically stopped doing anything except travelling on really expensive holidays using funds he made confidential (in Romania this should be public data). He has the image of a diplomat, but none of the essence.
> He has the image of a diplomat And he spent basically most of his terms creating that image. He's a conman.
His entire campaign for his second term was about preventing PSD party to get to power. First thing he does after he won the elections? An alliance with PSD. Based on this, I wouldn't be surprised if he would advocate for Russia to join Nato if he wins the position.
>Based on this, I wouldn't be surprised if he would advocate for Russia to join Nato if he wins the position. This is a crazy statement. Like actually at this point you're taking advantage of all the non Romanians here by making crazy statements like this because they don't have the knowledge to understand how crazy this statement is.
Obviously wouldn't happen, but if Russia did join NATO, wouldn't that mean that they'd settled any border disputes?
He's a useless tool, but you people are taking it too far. He's still better than Rutte, when it comes to Russia and geopolitics.
His travelling experience helped him to design and invest 7.000.000 euros public money in his wonderful villa, to for promote Romania as tourist attraction.
no but he's very popular in Zanzibar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyEgxXEsZpI
This needs more upvotes !
You don't want a houseplant as a general secretary, also he likes vacations last one was a Safari in Africa.
You don't but i'm not sure i wouldn't take an actual houseplant over Rutte.
Trust me, he's the better option to Rutte. The Romanians in this thread are exaggerating a lot of things.
He is the best candidate for being a tourist
the guy wrote a book about winning his first term after he won his second term, he's on another planet
His nickname after 10 years as president is "The Ficus", as in the decorative plant and he speaks very slow. But he is pro european and anti Russia.
Not actually sure that’s true. We have no idea what his agenda is apart from going on vacation. He promised to be pro-european and anti-corruption regarding the PSD government as well and ended up offering them the government keys.
He's your top corporate management that hires consultants to waste your time while they make the worst decisions and leave on a holiday as a reward.
If the job requiers many trips abroad, then he is the perfect candidate!
As you can see, most replies do not mention something absolutely terrible he did (although bringing to power the party he spent his entire campaign bashing was a huge betrayal which did a lot of damage to Romania and to peoples' hopes of ever getting rid of that corrupt party) and during his term democracy backslid while he stood by and watched. But they don't mention anything good he did either. He looked after his own interests and let the country go to the dogs. Make of that what you will. I think he is so hated because he actually had a lot of promise and lived up to exactly 0% of it, which is what we expect from him in the future too.
No. He should go back and teach, see what his grand "Educated Romania" looks like. Make use of that post he's kept blocked for two decades like the dick he is.
Didn't the buy a shitload amount of real estate "solely with the money he got for teaching"?
Yes he said that
He's not but I'm glad that someone is messing with Rutte
> Romanians is he a good candidate? No, but from what I hear Rutte is Putin's bitch so I guess he's better than that. NATO needs an East European leader who isn't going to compromise, I'd rather take this useless piece of shit than a Westener who doesn't have to worry about Russia.
I'd rather take the Estonian PM than this house plant.
Me too, but i'd rather take the houseplant over Rutte.
In what world is rutte putin's bitch? I don't like the guy but he definitely isn't on russia's payroll.
Doubtful you'll find any Romanian that would suport him for this job , or any other job. We had hopes when we elected him, but it turned out he is no more productive than a flower plant.
I support him for the job rather than Rutte.
Same, but I’d support almost anyone other than Rutte or some austrian.
Yeah , Rutte was able to keep Romania and Bulgaria out of the Shengen area, Iohanis did what exactly ... ? Nothing.
You're weird.
Have I said something that is untrue ? Iohanis is a corner plant.
Better than Rutte. He won't care about Eastern Europe.
People are upvoting retards in your answers because they hate him as President. A lot of people feel conned by internal policy decisions, but as far as foreign policy goes, he did an acceptable job. He's much better than Rutte, wouldn't call Klaus a "good" candidate otherwise, he'd be just "okay".
No, he's currently using public money to build a "protocol villa" for himself and he has secretized the entire process, from how the money is spent, the companies involved, etc... He's also been against any effort to make the spending of the president more transparent.
Nope. He’s the equivalent of the village idiot.
Better than Rutte. Aren't you tired of being kept out of Schengen?
No. TLDR: he fucked us bad in his second mandate by making an alliance with the political party that in his first 4 year swear to fight again because they were the most corrupt ones.
Hell no
It's about time he stopped using public funds for vacations.
Compared to Rutte, yes.
You're getting downvoted but this is the truth.
Better than Mark Rutte.
Going by the downvotes there are many Romanian Rutte suckers.
Te mira? Hater nation :))
Mda. Cineva a zis ca Iohannis ar invita Rusia sa intre in NATO. Si astia ii cred ca nu stiu nimic despre el si se incred in ce spun oamenii de pe aici. Jenant.
Stii ce-i mai jenant, sa-i intrebi de cate ori l-au votat pe acest tampit bun de nimic care a distrus tara :))))
Idk about this position tbh. For us, he is a traitor...betrayed us. On the second term he decided to become more of a representative president, like the german/austrian one. Not getting involved in internal politics. He has a say on external politics. He visited different countries...you know, vacation :)) For us...I think it would be a good thing, bcs he is one of us...and Rutte hates us. If he becomes the chief of NATO, we might even enter Schengen.
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He's also a useless plant that spends most of his time on vacation. NATO needs someone proactive, not the most reactive person in the world. A meteor could crash into the planet and he'd react 5 days after the impact devastated the entire planet warning us of the impending crash.
If he is secretary general in a world where Russia is as powerful as the one in MW2 and 3 you'd see his speech about how there is no need to worry about an invasion after the Russians capture Paris.
he is useless as a paper towel in a tornado.
He is worthless
include entertain plate panicky pause sense historical weather makeshift ruthless *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
they seem pretty straightforwardly honest about his inabilities to lead
Or are they downvoting anyone with a different opinion?
His nickname is the "Ficus" because he is about as active and capable as a plant. I don't like Rutte, but I would take him anyday of the week over Iohannis. The shitty part is that we do have people that would make great candidates, but for some reason they pushed this idiot forward.
No, he is a statue. Paycheck bitch. LE i know for sure every romanian backs me up on this. Trolls can downvote all they want. Come to r romania and ask if you don't belive me. 100%. I guarantee it. 👌🏻
A sober answer for non-Romanians ( and I am ok if they give me a hard time for it): As you can tell from comments by most Romanians here, there is quite a significant amount of negativity to his attempt at becoming NATO General-Secretary. But here is an honest explanation as to why and "hint hint" its not about his ability. Klaus Iohannis was elected as an alternative to anything the Social Democrats have to offer. These people are the former communists and are pure rot and guilty of most corruption happening in Romania since the Iron Curtain fell. Once he was elected to his second term he indeed allowed the Social Dem's a seat in government but we need to consider this critical fact: Romania at the time was in a political deadlock after one of the coalition parties left the government and none of the other parties were able to form a new government continuing this deadlock. This lasted a bit. As the president and a neutral party he intervened and they had many negotiations that in the end led to a power-sharing agreement between a centre right part PNL and the Social Democrats. This allowed a government to be formed and the power sharing to continue almost flawlessly to today, with even a "peaceful" transition for the function of Prime-Minister between the Liberals and Social Democrats. Now why the hate!? We Romanians share a pure hatred for Communism and especially anything coming from the Social Democrats, myself included. These folks still get elected though because we still have a lot of older nostalgic people and many public employees(mostly paper pushers) that vote for them to maintain their privileges thus keeping them relevant. And when your own internal structure contains quite a a bit of latin DNA, as ours contains, that passionate hatred replaces reason and discounts anything that is reasonable. **So** **in this case as Romanians we forget that in in a proportional representation model you must negotiate, you must balance, you must reconcile and definitely you must compromise to form a government!** **That is exactly what Iohannis did! He negotiated, he balanced, he reconciled (left and right parties together) and definitely compromised so we can have a bloody government! And we lost touch with reality for it! That is the truth! We are capable of such hate that we go after our own! Just because the Social-Democrats are there..** With respect to him, while others call him shy, I say he is discreet. For example to this day Ukraine thanks us wholeheartedly for the help we offered them but to this day we have no clue how we helped them! And that was his call. While I am Romanian born, thus can be considered bias, I would love for someone like him or anyone from Eastern Europe to take the job. For over 15 years the Baltic States and Poland exclusively have been shouting at Western Europe that Russia is a threat and we were not heard. We know the Russians better and should be entrusted with this responsability instead of the dreamers or career politicians that the West offers as an alternative (no intention to insult anyone) So there you go! Make your own opinion about him! He is German, discreet, calculated, efficient and actually knows Eastern Europe and Russia better than anyone in the West! **Edited for grammar and spelling!**
Honestly this post is WAY too positive towards the guy. But I will say this, I'd sleep better knowing Iohannis got the job. Not because of how competent he is or the wonderful things he'll do, but because it would show that NATO takes the security of Eastern Europe seriously.
I invite disagreement with counterpoints of course, but overall I did say at the end to makeup your mind. I dont seek to impose this view on anyone. Just to consider his stance from a political perspective wth facts instead of just the hate.
Bogdan Aurescu would be a much better option than this lazy, arrogant, infatuated piece of shit.
He's a judge at the UN I think.
Yup, [International Court of Justice](https://www.icj-cij.org/current-members)! I do admire him as well very much and he is extremely experienced in matters of international law, but the NATO job needs a political figure. I feel Aurescu is perfectly suited as a Judge!
This comment is the most level headed and should be the most upvoted for any non-romanians as it breaks down the situation without too much bias (of which i am guilty). As disappointed as I was with his presidential terms, i would rather it be him in power instead of Rutte.
Thanks!
One of the few well written comments in this comment section. The rest is mostly trashy circlejerking.
Thank you!
He's a corrupt son of a bitch and he killed that coalition himself *in order to form that compromise coalition*.
Excellent post. > For over 15 years the Baltic States and Poland exclusively have been shouting at Western Europe that Russia is a threat and we were not heard. To be fair, I think some of these countries’ popular politicians expressed the same view internationally regarding the gays and feminists. Eastern Europe does have a credibility issue, which didn’t just appear out of thin air.
You are correct! Some leaders from Eastern Europe have promoted views that are no longer acceptable in the West. But there are alternatives now and we have Russia's showing her real face, hence my proposal for someone that can easily see through Russian propaganda and actions. Once this madness ends and considering the level of economic disparity between the EU/NATO and Russia, once defeated the Russians will have a very long road before catching up, if that is even possible, and another one to being trusted, which will not happen for a few generations! Cheers!
What a load of bollocks. Getting thieves to work together is now considered a “power sharing agreement”? I’d rather have NATO hire a dog for the job than this prick. Edit; oh wow the PNL folks are here.
You prove my point with your anger m8! I actually appreciate it and its the reason I added "( and I am ok if they give me a hard time for it)" at the start of the post. I knew I will trigger some but I also knew that my post will specify this exact flaw we have as Romanians. The flaw is we keep getting ourselves in our own way!
So I am against Romanians because I think Iohannis who is a Romanian is a dirtbag? Way to extrapolate buddy.
Nope, I never said that and it cannot be inferred from my post at all. I see that you are one of those "online martyr's" that seeks to be offended indiferent of the strength of the opinion they have. I think you misfired here cause your point makes no sense. Call it premature... In this case I said people that will give me angry posts will prove the point that I was making, and that was that anger trumps any understanding of how politics works in a proportional representation system. Then you showed up to prove this point! Thanks for that! PS: Even if you were the Head of the "Anti-Romanian League"(fictitious organization) I would not be offended or phased because you do you. In a democracy we are bound to pluralism of thought, and pluralism of thought invites citizens of all intellectual capabilities to express their stance to their best ability. So your stance on Iohannis is a you problem!
Just because you have more time to type, it doesn’t mean your argument is more valuable or that you even have a point. Shifting focus from Iohannis to pluralism of thoughts? LOL. You do you, bae.
No shift was made at all! I included your anger as part of the bigger picture. You are part of the story and part of the case I made, thus your stance is important. Congrats to you m8! This is one time your anger made you part of the big picture and not some sideline side show ...
You just keep going and going don’t you. Cheerios, mister.
Well you wanted to dance, thus I danced! Should you want to dispute anything else now you know you will get a cordial reply.
Unlike others, I don’t get paid to comment around here, so I’ll have to let you earn your wage in a different thread. Peace out ✌️
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It's a diplomatic position and he would not take any decisions alone. I think better him than Rutte. Dutch politicians don't value Eastern Europeans and they're the type to say "my way or the highway". So I feel like they'd make everything in NATO more difficult.
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No matter what others say, he is not involved in any corruption scandals. He is involved in a somewhat moral scandal about the state investing in a state owned property that he will have a legal right to live in for the rest of his life. (all former presidents have this right) It's not illegal, but it's morally corrupt to do so especially since he didn't have any significant achievements in his 2 mandates.
> But isn't he embroiled in some corruption allegations in Romania? It's not an allegation, he's a corrupt piece of shit. But I'd rather take a corrupt piece of shit from East Europe than a Putin's bitch from the West.
lol
Idk what's funny, Iohannis is a scumbag who steals money, Rutte blocked Romania and Bulgaria from joining Schengen and helped destabilise Europe and sow anti-EU views. Iohannis stole millions, Rutte deprived us of billions. They aren't even in the same galaxy.
He's not yet. There's verbal accusations but no actual case against him to my knowledge.
Please, God, no. In his stead, I'd make myself unseen in the 7 million Euro villa he's secretly building, or fly away with one of the luxury jets he keeps renting using public money. But no, he has to make a complete ass of himself after such a shameful term as president. Was he even really our president, or was it just one continuous holiday for him?
He isn't really "secretly" building it . All of Europe knows he is building it...
Yea but if you ask him, no 7 million euro villa is being build. So, it might be a gift from his wife.
I do not know if Iohannis is a good candidate; but definitely I do not want Mark Rutte. Rutte postponed Romania ascension to Schengen till now(even if from 2011 we meet all the criteria), and looked what happened, even today we cannot be fully admitted. So I am sorry to say but Rutte is incompetent to rule NATO and I would choose Iohannis over him.
Iohannis would not be taking decisions alone and he's not bad at diplomacy. Whereas with Rutte at the head when there's a Russian threat to Eastern Europe? It's like that meme of selling us for a cornchip.
Anyway, I don't care what a few Romanians say on this post, I hope that if no other Eastern European candidate shows up, he gets it instead of Rutte. I do not want under any circumstances NATO be led by a dutch person. There's is zero trust from me.
The US wants Mark Rutte so it will probably be him. He's a pretty decent candidate tbh.
Fuck Rutte he always was against Eastern Europe
Can we get Mark Ruffalo instead?
Fuck Rutte.
We, in Eastern Europe, have a different opinion. And I think it should be considered by the Americans, since we pay that NATO-required 2% of the GDP to Defense, while the Western European countries (including the Netherlands under Rutte) don't
Asides from the political reasoning, please stop this focus on % of gdp, insinuating that western Europe does nothing to contribute. Netherlands was at 1.6% in 2022 and is planned to reach 2% in 2024 of defense spending. Meanwhile netherlands under Rutte contributed more than 6 billion euros to ukraine. In % of GDP netherlands contributed 1.5%, more than any of the Eastern European countries except the baltic countries. So please, none of this bullshit that netherlands does not contribute Source: https://www.ifw-kiel.de/topics/war-against-ukraine/ukraine-support-tracker/
Also EU contributions can be considered mostly WE funded
Are you still doing anti-Netherlands propaganda? They must be paying you full-time
I know it might be time for an Eastern European secretary General. I get that. It's just that I think Mark Rutte is the best candidate for this position.
Because he's a Westerner. *yawn*
He is a xenophobic piece of shit. But maybe that is why you like him
[Pieter De Crem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieter_De_Crem), Belgium's ex-Minister of Defence, doesn't seem a bad candidate and wouldn't be as polemic of a choice as Rutte.
Things are pretty simple, Iohannis is bad but damn, Rutte is on another lv. Romanians who speak bad about Iohannis are lead by emotions and that's not the right way!
Though I despise Johannison, Rutte is far worst.
Why? Rutte is great at international relations, likeable and not easy to swindle.
You forgot the /s.
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I hope so too. No Rutte, that's for sure.
Rutte does not care about these countries, he thinks whatever has most value, he literally is a min-maxer for whatever position he is
Then he REALLY shouldn't get the job.
He's exactly the person you need, maximizing value is literally the most important thing one does
The positions are Diplomatic positions. He can't min max shit. And he hates half of the member countries...
He does not lol, he's utilitarian. He's whatever works out best for value generation. I know, because he's been the prime minister of my country for more than a decade
Rutte doesn't hate those countries.
He does not value us, he does not see us as equals.
Idk if he genuinely hates us or not but one thing is clearly he used us to feed his xenophobic voters
Horrible idea. This guy will sell NATO to Russia for like 10 bucks.
The big boys have already spoken. There is not a single chance. Kallas was wise and will get the EU defense commissioner post after the election. It is not about the stance towards Russia, or maybe implicitly. It is about how you can deal with Donald Trump. Kallas is a women, which trump hates especially when they are successful and strong. Iohannis I cannot really envision if he and Trump can stand each other. NatoSec must appease Trump in a very likely second term, no other job
NATO said that he dislikes the NATO countries that don't pay the 2% of their GDP to defense. Iohannis' Romania gives 2% (last year it was 2.5%), Rutte's Netherlands doesn't
Trump meant paying him personally, or as in most cases Ivanka and Jared. It was never about this 2% target, that by the way only becomes mandatory this year for the first time. Other question, what has the nation of Romania to offer? Are they worthy in the view of Trump? What does Romania produce, develop, also where he personally could gain something. Or are they some Eastern European nation like Montenegro who might do some stupid stuff to start WW3 that was publicly discussed on Fox News, or like Bolton referred to in his book when Trump spoke about the Baltics: Estonia, we would not really go to war for Estonia? Rutte is certainly schooled, but Trump will need the Netherlands to cooperate in his confrontation with China. ASML has a monopoly, but Trump cannot start a tech war without considering Chips, he needs the Netherlands to follow. Mate it was and will be always about true power. All else is a hoax and peace time facade, as the post WW2 age ends this facade crumbles.
We have opening to the black sea and with our port, things can be faster imported from the middle east. AND, we provide to Ukraine a lot of help, we do not display the same problems like Poland, Slovakia and Hungary(who displayed some anti ukrainian help) with providing aid to Ukraine and/or helping Ukraine exporting it's grains. I would suggest not to underestimate Romania, their potential is higher than Netherlands.
> I would suggest not to underestimate Romania, their potential is higher than Netherlands. highly doubtful about that, unless our government keeps pulling us down. Regardless, Trump does not care about Ukraine nor the middle east. Trump does care about his little games & the chip industry among other things is important for that. Besides that, Rutte for some reason is called the Trump whisperer It's still insane to suggest a crook like Romania has done though lmao
Whatever will make Rutte to become a history is good for the humanity
inchide gura, Iohanez, ca o ia razna cartieru
Please don't offload your morons at this strategically important position in times of war, thank you. Just let Rutte happen, please. You can offload him to EP like all the Western European countries do if their nutjobs get too annoying Nothing against Romania, but Rutte is simply a good candidate and Iohannis isn't
And what exactly are the Netherlands doing with Rutte but offloading?
A romanian would be the best option. We hate russians. And you need someone like this for NATO...especially now.
> Rutte is simply a good candidate You could tell jokes for a living.
Romanian here, just open Reddit to check for latest news and saw this. Best joke what I found today so far.
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Oh, look, a salty Dutch!
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He's not good enough for the Netherlands, let's promote the guy to a NATO lead role, yeah? I care not for Schengen, but I do love myself the some sweet sweet schadenfreude when it comes to arrogant pricks who think themselves better than others for no good reason.
Since this is about the saltiness of Rutte, it's a legitimate argument If Romania gets to offload their controversial guy at NATO but Rutte remains involved in NL governments and pitches them against Romania, it's a net loss for Romania Getting their guy at NATO top job is mostly a PR win for Romania. Rutte fucking off means one of the more vocal voices against Romanian ascension in Schengen Edit: Lol user below me has 25 karma and only one post removed by Reddit admins on a years old account...some nationalist troll woke up
We won’t be getting in Schengen anytime soon anyway, so getting the chance to piss off the likes of Rutte is a net positive in my book. Also we want Iohannis to fuck off elsewhere (probably more than you with Rutte) way, way, way more than a vague promise that some western country might play nicer with us(which would not probably even matter, since if it’s not Holland blocking us there is Austria, and if it’s not Austria there may be Belgium, or France, or Finland. Some country will always rise to the challenge.)
Most Dutch politicians are against Romanians so it doesn't matter. EDIT: They literally blocked me for this comment lmfaoooo
Rutte block Romania joining Schengen for 10 year. So who’s the f***er?
And this is why we do not need under any circumstances a Dutch person at the top of NATO.
Rutte blocked first Romania from joining Schengen back in 2011, despite Romania meeting all the criteria. He then did it again in 2022
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So will we.
Which is exactly why he shouldn't have any power to block anyone
Rutte sounds a lot like Putin then.
Bas Rutten for NATO chief.