Romania’s outgoing centrist president, Klaus Iohannis, resigned on Monday as opposition hard-right parliamentary parties planned to have him impeached.

Romania's President Klaus Iohannis has resigned following pressure for him to step down ahead of a re-run of a presidential election that was controversially cancelled last year. The December vote was voided by Romania's top court after allegations of Russian state meddling.

Klaus Iohannis is the first president in the past 35 years to leave office through resignation. He will go down in history as one of Romania’s weakest

Klaus Iohannis is leaving Cotroceni Palace. He announced yesterday that he is resigning from the position of president of the country and that the resignation will take effect tomorrow, February 12.

Romanian President Iohannis resigned a day before facing impeachment over the annulment of the country’s presidential election last year.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis announced he will step down, effective Wednesday, to avoid the spectacle of an impeachment process launched by Bucharest’s parliament.

Klaus Iohannis is leaving Cotroceni today. Definitively, following his resignation, after having served two full terms as president of the country, plus an almost two-month extension granted by the Constitutional Court.

His exit comes as political opponents had sought to remove him over remaining in office beyond the end of his term.

Romania’s outgoing president resigned in an effort to defuse political tension after a high court decision to annul a shock election result last year extended his tenure in office.