Dodon missed twice
Former President of Moldova Igor Dodon suffered two defeats in one day. First, the Constitutional Court rejected the request of Dodon's party to cancel the decree of the current President Sandu on the nomination of a candidate for prime minister. And then its parliamentary deputies had to deprive two deputies from the allied faction of SOR of immunity, as a result of which the parliamentary majority ceased, in fact, to be a majority.
Counterattack of the Constitution
Dodon and his supporters, considered pro-Russian, received their first blow in the gut in the Constitutional Court. The Socialists challenged in the Constitutional Court the decree of the pro-Western President Sandu to nominate a politician close to her, Igor Grosu, as Prime Minister. The latter heads the presidential party PAS, since the president in Moldova cannot hold the post of party leader.
Deputies Dodon and Shor had their own candidate for the post of head of government - Mariana Durlesteanu. After her refusal, they nominated the Moldovan Ambassador to Russia, Vladimir Golovatyuk. For a nomination to take place legally, it must be sealed by a presidential decree.
However, Sandu nominated Grosu and had no intention of canceling her decree or issuing a new one on the nomination of Golovatyuk. The socialists tried to “help” the president with the repeal of the decree in the Constitutional Court.
Sandu and Grosso.
The Constitutional Court resolved the dispute in favor of President Maia Sandu. Grosu became the official candidate for the post of head of government. This decision is final and cannot be appealed. “The constitution allows the president to nominate his own candidate if there is no formed majority in parliament that nominated the candidate,” said the chairman of the Constitutional Court, Domnica Manole.
Prosecutor's trap
The ruling coalition suffered a second blow in the evening, at a parliamentary meeting. Prosecutor General Alexander Stoianoglo, who was elected to this post, by the way, both with the votes of the socialists and the SOR deputies, demanded that the immunity of two deputies of the ruling coalition be revoked. These are Denis Ulanov, the current lawyer of the oligarch Ilan Shor who fled from Moldova, and Peter Jardan, the ex-director of the Chisinau International Airport.
The first of the deputies is accused of assisting the criminal gangs of fugitive oligarchs Vlad Plahotniuc and Ilan Shor in their plan to deliberately bankrupt through unreliable loans of the three largest Moldovan banks in 2012-2014. They managed to withdraw more than a billion dollars from banks through dummy third parties, as a result of which the Moldovan economy collapsed. The total volume of funds withdrawn by criminals reached 1/5 of GDP. According to investigators, Ulanov not only provided Shor and Plahotniuc with legal services, but was one of the accomplices in the criminal event.
The second deputy, when he was president of the Chisinau International Airport, was directly involved in the development and adoption of an agreement on the concession of this state asset by an offshore company, behind which were Ilan Shor and Vlad Plahotniuc. The prosecutor's office claims that Jardan, being a government official, deliberately committed such violations in the concession agreement so that the agreement practically transferred the ownership of the airport to the oligarchs without the possibility of returning it to the state. Indirectly, the prosecutors' statements are confirmed by the fact that even after the transfer of the airport under concession to the new owners, Jardan retained his position, and then also received a promotion up the political ladder - in the party of Ilan Shor.
The Socialists were forced to support the revocation of immunity from both parliamentarians, despite the fact that they are colleagues in the ruling coalition. Otherwise, they would have disavowed their connection with Plahotniuc and Shor, who are considered the most hated persons in Moldovan society. 70 and 68 deputies, respectively, voted for revoking the immunity of Ulanov and Zhardan.
From president to dictators
The main consequence of the parliamentary meeting was the virtual destruction of the parliamentary majority. Without Ulanov and Jardan, Dodon and Shor have 51 deputies out of 101 in parliament. However, another parliamentarian from the coalition is in intensive care with coronavirus, and two more are seriously ill.
The socialists and Shorov's Za-Moldova no longer have a parliamentary majority.
It is in this form that parliament will come to a meeting at which it will discuss the appointment of Sandu’s protege, Igor Grosu, as prime minister. The latter has already announced that he is assembling a team, preparing a board program and intends to appear before the deputies in the near future. If by this time a situational majority emerges in parliament, it will clearly be in favor of the president.
“The decision of the Constitutional Court turns the Republic of Moldova from a parliamentary one into a presidential one, when the last word is not with the highest legislative body, but with the head of state,” said ex-president Igor Dodon. When he was president, he repeatedly stated the need to transition to a presidential form, but after leaving office he abruptly changed his mind.
The establishment of a pro-presidential government in Moldova means that with the help of Sandu, the West will completely take control of all branches of power. Even if she decides to hold early parliamentary elections, their appointment and conduct will also depend entirely on her will.
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