| Carmen Iohannis | |
| Office: | First Lady of Romania |
| Term Label: | Assumed role |
| Term: | 21 December 2014 |
| President: | Klaus Iohannis |
| Predecessor: | Maria Băsescu |
| Birth Date: | 2 November 1960 |
| Birth Place: | Sibiu, Romanian People's Republic |
| Birthname: | Carmen Georgeta Lăzurcă |
| Nationality: | Romanian[1] |
| Residence: | Sibiu [2] Bucharest [3] |
| Occupation: | English teacher at Gheorghe Lazăr National College, Sibiu |
Carmen Georgeta Iohannis (née Lăzurcă born 2 November 1960, latinized as Carmen Johannis) is an English teacher at the Gheorghe Lazăr National College in Sibiu and the wife of Klaus Iohannis, the current President of Romania, whom she married in 1989.[4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Carmen and Klaus met while they were both students at the Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca. Immediately after graduation, the two were assigned as teachers to Agnita and Sibiu. She was the reason Iohannis chose to stay in Romania when the rest of his family emigrated to Germany in the early 1990's. She is an ethnic Romanian, while her husband is an ethnic German of Transylvanian Saxon descent. The two of them do not have children.[9] [10]
She is the descendant of a Romanian Greek-Catholic family from Sântu, a village near Reghin, in the neighbouring Mureș County. During the prohibition of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church by the communist authorities, Carmen attended surreptitious services officiated by Archpriest Pompeiu Onofreiu at his home in Șelarilor Street, services which were also attended by Klaus Iohannis.[11] [12]
In a ranking conducted by perfecte.ro, Carmen Iohannis figures among the most stylish wives of world leaders, alongside Queen Letizia of Spain, Kate Middleton, and Queen Rania of Jordan.[13]
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (5 October 2018)
Italy