The Romanian President Removed by the Example of Moldova

There is a saying in Russian “You learn from those who are beside you”.  Romania that has recently taken over the Presidency of the Council of the EU today verifies this folk wisdom. “Special relations” between Romania and Moldova have long been commonplace. Bucharest has been investing in the Moldovan economy and politics for many years, promoting the ideas of unionism in the context of the European integration of Moldova. The countries cooperate in the military and diplomatic spheres. 2018, when both states celebrated the 100th anniversary of the unirea (unification), was accompanied by numerous ideological activities. Joint session of the parliaments of the two countries, one-day cancellation of roaming, declarations in support of unification at the level of certain localities. This celebration certainly stirred up the discussion about the possibility of a new unirea. Most experts do not believe too much in the creation of “Great Romania”, based on sociological data on little popularity of the idea among the population of Moldova. However, the same polls record a steady increase in the number of supporters of the unification, while the number of pro-Romanian politicians and political parties in the country is increasing even faster. It is no coincidence that the governments in Chisinau and Bucharest have been waiting for Romania’s Presidency of the EU Council in the first half of 2019: it was supposed to help Moldova accelerate the process of European integration through rapprochement with the “mother state”. The plan was to make Bucharest a donor of ideas and positive practices for Chisinau and to contribute to the perception of Moldova as an integral member of the united family of European nations. But the reality was ironic to the limit – instead of sharing its positive experience with the Republic of Moldova, Romania, by contrast, embraced the negative Moldovan. Yesterday there was a news in the Romanian media about the intention of the ruling social democratic party, which controls the government and the parliamentary majority, to organize a short-term ‘impeachment’ of President Klaus Iohannis. The idea of the social democrats is that the removal of the head of state for 7 days will allow the parliamentary speaker Calin Tariceanu, which will become Acting President, to sign decrees on the appointment of two ministers. The desire to temporarily ‘disable’ the head of state is caused by a controversy between the President and the government of Romania regarding the appointment of Lia Vasilescu as Minister of Regional Development and Mircea Draghici as Minister of Transport. The dispute has been going on for several months. During this time, Klaus Iohannis managed three times to reject these candidates suggested by the Prime Minister, Viorica Dancila. So, the Moldovan experience is very useful in this case: the Speaker of the Parliament Candu has five times replaced the suspended President Igor Dodon. As a rule, the purpose of such maneuvers was the approval of the ministers appointed by the Democratic Party. At the same time, both political forces in fact had their profit: Igor Dodon maintained the status of a fighter against the usurpation of power, and Vladimir Plahotniuc demonstrated the power and ability to promote any decisions over the president’s head. For 5 times removal of the President of Moldova from the power has become clear and acceptable political practice for all participants in the system, including the audience of this show – the Moldovan citizens. If in the next few days the same step is taken by the ruling social democrats in Romania, it will not be a revelation for anyone. Moldova neighborly exports to Romania its own specific way to capture the institutions of power in order to achieve some tactical tasks. However, for Klaus Iohannis comparisons with Igor Dodon will strongly affect his popularity before the start of the election campaign for the second term.