#Europeanelections2019/President Iohannis blames Europhobic parties on politicians "guilty of their own failures"

President Klaus Iohannis on Thursday in Cluj-Napoca blamed the emergence of "Europhobic parties" on politicians "guilty of their own failures" that blame the European Union, singling out the Social Democratic Party (PSD), major at rule PSD, for a "catastrophic government" that "works for the thief at the top of the party." "Many people ask why this Euroscepticism in the first place, as it is a worrying phenomenon, quite widespread, we have to acknowledge, why did Eurosceptic parties, Europhobic parties, appear? The explanations are mainly two, plus a lot more secondary explanations. The European Union is a successful project, but we forget to talk about its success and I am very pleased to talk about this great success," Iohannis told the launch of his book "EU.RO-Un dialog deschis despre Europa" (EU.RO - An open dialogue on Europe) in the northwestern city of Cluj Napoca. He said that the European Union is denigrated by national politicians who are guilty of their own failures. "The second biggest reason for Euroscepticism is politicians themselves, politicians who when they go to Brussels are Europeans through and through discussing only European funds, directives, regulations and all of them are proponents. Then, they come home, where things do not work that easy, as we have seen for two years a disastrous party, called PSD, with a catastrophic government. Someone must be guilty of these things. How can a PSD member say that it is incapable because they have no concept and they work for the thief at the top of the party? No, he or she cannot. So, we are looking for another enemy, another person to blame, and they have found all sorts of people to blame, but now that it's electioneering for MEP seats, PSD obviously found the European Union to be the main culprit. It is embarrassing, but it shows how the European Union is denigrated, even denigrated by national politicians seeking someone to blame for their own failures," said Iohannis. He showed that Europhobic parties are not restricted to Romania. "So, unfortunately, that is not happening at us only (...) I hope things will be seen differently on Sunday evening, but others have their own failures as well. So it is us with our failures, them with their failures, and Eurosceptic and Europhobic have mushroomed all over Europe. In fact, it is a sad form of populism, because these politicians have seen that there is fear among Europeans, fear of what will come, some dissatisfaction with the way the European Union works. And what did they come up with? Some anti-European slogans and chanelling those grievances," Iohannis said. He added that another issue of the anti-European wave is migration-related. Iohannis on Thursday attended the launch of his book at the Auditorium Maximum of the Babes-Bolyai University, his alma mater. AGERPRES (RO- author: Gheorghe Pietrar, editor: Marius Fratila; EN -author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)