Iohannis was elected the mayor of the city of Sibiu
in 2000, representing the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania.
Although the German population of the once predominantly German-speaking
city of Sibiu (German: Hermannstadt, Transylvanian Saxon dialect: Härmeschtat)
had declined to a tiny minority, Iohannis won a surprise victory and
was re-elected by landslides in 2004, 2008, and 2012. Iohannis is
credited with turning his city into one of Romania's most popular
tourist destinations, and the city was declared the European Capital of Culture in 2007. In February 2013, Iohannis became a member of the National Liberal Party, accepting an invitation from then liberal leader Crin Antonescu, and was immediately elected the party's First Vice President, eventually becoming the PNL President during the following year.
In October 2009, four of the five political groups in the Parliament, excluding the Democratic Liberal Party of then-President Traian Băsescu, proposed him as a candidate for the office of Prime Minister of Romania; however, Băsescu refused to nominate him despite the Parliament's adoption of a declaration supporting his candidacy.[3] He was again the candidate for Prime Minister of the National Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party in the elections in the same year.[4]
Iohannis is the first Romanian president to come from an ethnic minority.[5] He is a Transylvanian Saxon, part of Romania's German minority which settled in Transylvania in the 12th century. He was re-elected in the 2019 Romanian presidential election.
