PRESIDENT DODON MAINTAINS THERE ARE NO CHANGES IN PSRM-ACUM RELATIONSHIP

There are no changes whatsoever in the relationship between the Party of Socialists and the ACUM bloc, Moldova President Igor Dodon stated to journalists before the PSRM office, where he held a meeting with the party leadership on Monday morning.

Answering journalists’ questions, Dodon said that the draft parliamentary Resolution on a vote of no confidence in the Maia Sandu Government is remaining in force, “and the Socialists are not going to recall it from the Parliament – if only the Government does not revoke the Law [on amending the Law on the Prosecution Service] passed under the Cabinet’s own responsibility”.

Speaking live on the local television last Friday night already after the submission of the draft Resolution on no confidence, Igor Dodon said that “now the coalition partners have 3 days for reconciliation in order to prevent a snap parliamentary election, which would be extremely undesirable”.

“If to make analogies with football, Maia Sandu scored a goal in her own goal because she stood up with an initiative, which nobody wishes to support. I guess this happened due to her own ambitions – because an ACUM candidate [Andrei Nastase] lost the recent Chisinau mayoral election. I am sure this is a blunder, which will begin telling soon. So far, the Government was shown only a yellow card, not a red one. An objectively wise variant in this situation for the Government is to revoke its initiative from parliament. If this does not happen, the Government will most probably be discharged next week. There are no other variants”, said the President.

In his words, if no solution is achieved and the Government is dismissed, a countdown will begin of the 45 days during which the President must nominate a candidacy for Prime Minister and to try and appoint a new government. If a new government fails to enlist the support of a majority in parliament, then a snap parliamentary election will be appointed.

“This is an undesirable scenario because in the autumn of 2020 Moldova will hold an ordinary presidential election, so to hold an early parliamentary election in February or March 2020 would be not good. The country needs stability. I shall do all I can to prevent a snap election. But if the sides fail to reach an accord, I guess we should hold a parliamentary election simultaneously with the presidential one”, stated the President.

However, according to the Constitution, presidential and parliamentary elections may not be held simultaneously because the President has no right to dissolve the Parliament in last 6 months of the presidential mandate.

As was already reported by Infotag, last Friday the Party of Socialists submitted to the Parliament an initiative on a vote of no confidence in the Government. That happened after the Maia Sandu Government had adopted – on its own responsibility before the Parliament – a Law on amending the Law on the Prosecution Service. According to the amendments, the Prime Minister receives the right to nominate a candidacy for Prosecutor General and receives several more plenary powers for recalling Prosecutor General.