"Dodon" Constitution Court ruling on cabinet of ministers illegal

The arbiters of the Constitution Court who pass unlawful rulings and the politicians standing behind their backs will be brought to liability for their actions one day or another, Moldova’s President Igor Dodon said on Monday in the wake of a ruling by the court to declare him incapable of performing the presidential duties.

"Questions spring up once again as regards the professionalism and independence of the arbiters," Dodon tweeted in Facebook on the Constitution Court’s ruling to appoint new ministers without taking account of his position on the candidacies.

"Representatives of state power and the state institutes they control simply don’t realize the dire aftermaths of their steps but sooner or later they will have to face responsibility for all these violations of the law, which they encroach on so remorselessly today in a pursuit of self-serving party interests," he said.

The Democratic Party of Moldova, which controls the national parliament and the cabinet of ministers, made public the appointment of two candidates to vacant ministerial positions last week.

It appointed Nicolae Ciubuc to the post of Agriculture Minister and Silvia Radu, to the post of minister of healthcare, labor and social security. Dodon endorsed the resignations of previous ministers but refused to approve the new appointments saying the candidates did not meet requirements of the law on state positions and the status of civil servants.

Prime Minister Pavel Filip refused to discuss other candidacies, however, and a group of Democratic Party MPs filed a petition against Dodon with the Constitution Court.

In the situation where the presidential powers are restricted by the Constitution, the president uses actively his right to refrain from signing the documents, the contents of which he does not agree with.

The problem Dodon has come to grips with is that he can reject the candidates for ministerial positions only two times. Upon the ruling of the Constitution Court, in case of a third refusal, the parliament speaker who gets the interim presidential powers of the prime minister can sign the appointments instead of him.

This is the fourth time that the Constitution Court suspends Dodon’s presidential powers.