Is the Moldovan Parliament Preparing to Attack the Presidency Institution?

Vladimir ROTAR Maia Sandu was demanded to nominate a candidate for the post of prime minister from the parliamentary majority by March 9. Otherwise, she risks her presidency to be transformed into a "decorative function" A meeting of the Republican Council of the Socialist Party was held last Saturday. It was aimed to discuss the current internal political crisis in the country. As a result, PSRM leader Igor Dodon convened a press conference and made a whole series of quite remarkable statements regarding his vision as to possible ways out of the current political-legal impasse. One could clearly hear specific threats addressed to Maia Sandu, hidden behind the facade of wishes to prevent crisis escalation, worries about the fate of the country and conciliatory calls for dialogue between the head of state and parliament. “After the decree nominating Mrs. Gavrilitsa as candidate for the post of prime minister was declared unconstitutional, the president must take into account the proposal that the parliamentary majority made and nominate the candidate proposed by this majority. Any other approach obviously does not comply with the Constitution and is a continuation of power usurpation,” Dodon said. Perhaps, the word "usurpation" in this case is still a deliberate exaggeration but partly, the ex-president is right: Maia Sandu definitely exceeds her powers and acts on the verge of violating some Constitution provisions. However, it’s not the first time for us to witness how inconvenient it is for a Moldovan leader to operate within the legal framework assigned to him. Everyone knows that the presidency is difficult and “fatal” in a sense, because the practical authority absence is still combined with an increased degree of responsibility for affairs in the country and high citizens’ expectations (a burden, Sandu's predecessor for example, could not handle with). Obviously, the ex- PAS head is quite familiar with such a state of affairs and is now trying to bend the situation across her knee despite all the existing obstacles, even constitutional ones. The head of state’s motive is understandable, as is her unwillingness to conduct a dialogue with the parliament whose effectiveness for her purposes (primarily to arrange early elections) is rather doubtful. But the fact is that in her maneuvers, the president goes beyond the constitutional limits one way or another, and to a certain extent this weakens her position and gives rise to both criticism and retaliatory political actions. However, Maia Sandu has already shown she is not afraid of risks and threats and continues to flatly refuse any negotiations with her opponents. Thus, Igor Dodon's offers were already quickly rejected. This is how Sandu shows she is not going to convene a new round of consultations with parliamentary factions (important to notice, the Constitutional Court made such an appeal with its February 23 conclusion) and intends to work with legal experts on further steps. This means that the socialists will at least have to start implementing their threats. They are well aware that time is on president’s side now (who, even in the worst case keeps her own team, while her opponents risk facing the prospect of holding early elections in very unfavorable conditions). It turns out that something needs to be done before March 23 - the deadline after which the president will apply to the Constitutional Court with a request to establish parliament’s incapacity to approve the government, and consequently, wait for the conditions’ onset to dissolve the latter. It is no surprise that Dodon demanded that Sandu issue a decree on appointing a prime minister nominated by the parliamentary majority, no later than March 9. The president’s wait-and-see tactics, according to him, do not provide legal grounds for legislators’ resignation and therefore the head of state’s corresponding decree will be "an act of state power usurpation." “If the decree is not signed by March 9, the Republican Council of the PSRM will meet again to instruct the Political Executive Committee of the party to move to a different nature to stop the political chaos in the country. I will not now talk about the nature of these actions, because we do not want to any way influence the constructive approach we are appealing to. But if the actions aimed at usurpation of state power continue, we will have to move to decisive political actions aimed at stabilizing the situation in the country,” Dodon said. The kind of actions the PSRM chairman is talking about is perhaps the main political intrigue at the moment. Looking over possible options, it is easy to understand how limited the punitive tools of the parliament against the president are. Thus, the practice of president being "blackout", that was widely used during the reign of Vlad Plahotniuc’s Democratic Party against Igor Dodon, has now been eliminated. All thanks to the August 6, last year Constitutional Court’s decision which rightly called it unconstitutional. That is, such a "trick" will not work with Maia Sandu. Dodon himself categorically ruled out the president’s impeachment: “Now there is a lot of talk about the possibility to remove the president from office, about a possible referendum, which will be initiated by the PSRM. My answer is very clear: we will not initiate a referendum. The last thing that worries us now is the post of Maia Sandu or her dismissal. These debates are false, manipulative, because such a referendum would be another step towards deepening the crisis and would not resolve anything". The socialists’ leader is saying the right words but the real reason for the reluctance to initiate impeachment lies rather in the complexity of the procedure itself. The PSRM is capable of launching it on its own (1/3 of the deputies are enough for), but then it will be required the Constitutional Court’s support, two-thirds of the parliament’ support and, most important the need to hold a referendum will appear. At this referendum, the number of citizens to vote is to be much bigger than the one that voted for Sandu. And this, as everyone understands, is an absolute utopia at the moment. What, then? Analyzing the unambiguous hints made in the statement, the strike is planned not so much even personally against Sandu, but against the entire institution of the presidency. At least, it is logical to interpret Dodon's words about transforming the presidency into a “decorative function”. Alternatively, socialists can promote an appropriate constitutional law adoption. But this is difficult (it is necessary to gather 2/3 of the deputies) and takes a long time (the parliament has the right to adopt such a law no earlier than six months after draft presentation of the). However, there has long been a mechanism for the rapid change of the basic law in Moldova - the Constitutional Court, whose decisions are still the ultimate truth. Therefore, we can expect that by March 23, a preventive appeal from the PSRM will go to the Constitutional Court, for example, on president's actions to be recognized illegal since leading to a deadlock. Taking into account the volatile nature of various conclusions of the court during Vlad Plahotniuc’s time, it has a wide field of possibilities for making any decision, and the final verdict might well be determined by judges’ disposition to one or another political camp. If taking into account that the chairman of the instance is a supporter of Andrei Nastase, the “DA Platform” chairman (a latent opponent of early elections), the situation becomes even more interesting. As well seen, the degree of antagonism between the president and parliament is keeping growing. Maia Sandu refuses negotiating with country's main legislative body, declares its composition illegitimate and continues pursuing early elections no matter what. Her opponents are preparing an attack directly on the very institution of the presidency in an attempt to punish the obstinate president. The situation is gradually reaching its boiling point. If the crisis cannot be resolved politically, it will inevitably spill out onto the streets and will for sure, have dire consequences for the entire country.