PRESIDENT DODON STANDS CATEGORICALLY AGAINST DUAL CITIZENSHIP FOR POWER OFFICERS

Moldovan President Igor Dodon has spoken out categorically against the proposal to permit power agency officers to have a dual citizenship, which is being actively discussed in the Moldovan Parliament.

The head of state wrote on his Facebook page that this initiative has already been approved by the Government and sent over to the Parliament for consideration. It implies that Information and Security Service (ISS) officers will be eligible to have the citizenships of other foreign countries as well.

President Dodon wrote in this connection: "The ISS is one of the essential-most structures safeguarding the country's national security and statehood. If we lose the fidelity of these officers, in a longer-term perspective we will lose the country. That's why I believe it is impermissible for our ISS officers to swear fidelity to other states. Do you understand now why the ruling coalition has deprived the Moldovan President of the right to control the ISS? In order to make the ISS a foreign agent! And all this was done with the help of the Constitutional Court consisting of convinced unionists [adherents to the idea of Unire - Moldova's unification with Romania] and of Romanian citizens [5-of-6 Judges]".

Dodon stated that he is intending to decline this legislative initiative.

"I realize that the 100th anniversary of the Marea Unirea [Great Unification] is approaching, and our pro-Romania authorities are doing more and more symbolic political concessions. But everything has its limit, and our government seems to be stepping over this limit impudently", wrote the president.

He expressed confidence that at the 2018 parliamentary election the Party of Socialists [which he had headed until becoming president] will win a parliamentary majority, and the statehood will become the new authorities' key conception, "and we shall regain everything what we were deprived of in 2017".

Recently the Government submitted to the Parliament the draft law on canceling the ban on receiving foreign citizenships by certain categories of civil servants, after the Constitutional Court had recognized that ban as an unlawful one. The Constitutional Court ruled that those Republic of Moldova citizens, who have the citizenships of other countries, have the same rights and duties as those having only the Moldovan citizenship.

Before, the ban on dual citizenship for police and state-security officers as well as certain categories of state officials was introduced during the Communist governance period [2001-2009]. Subsequently, it was challenged with the Constitutional Court, which recognized the ban as non-constitutional and compelled the Parliament to amend the Law on the Information and Security Service and the Law on the Status and Deontology of the ISS Officer accordingly.