​MOLDOVAN PARLIAMENT DEBATING GOVERNMENT RESIGNATION QUESTION

On Tuesday, the Parliament of Moldova began discussing the draft Parliamentary Resolution on a vote of no confidence in the Maia Sandu Government.

According to the plenary agenda approved the day before, Prime Minister Maya Sandu was given 30 minutes to present her Government’s Work Report. After that, she was answering deputies’ questions for about one hour. And eventually, the floor was given to one representative from each parliamentary faction.

Last Friday, the parliamentary faction of the Party of Socialists, which forms a governing coalition together with the right-wing political bloc ACUM, put forward in the Parliament an initiative to vote no-confidence in the Government. That happened after the Government of Moldova had relegated to the Prime Minister a part of its plenary powers in the process of selecting a candidate for Prosecutor General.

The Government took that decision without consultations with coalition partners from the Party of Socialists: the Government just assumed responsibility on itself for that Law [on amending the Law on the Prosecution Service]. This means that the Law comes into effect if the Parliament does not put forth in 3 days an initiative on voting no-confidence in the Government. But if such initiative is put forward, it must be considered at a parliament plenary meeting within no longer than 3 days. The Party of Socialists put forward such initiative last Friday, and on Tuesday the Parliament is considering it.

To remove the Government, the Socialist initiative has to be backed by minimum 51 MPs in the 101-member Parliament of Moldova. The Party of Socialists has 36 deputies, while the right-wing ACUM bloc that controls the Government has 26 MPs. Therefore, the Government’s destiny depends on the opposition, first of all on the Democratic Party having a 30-member parliamentary faction. Most probably, the Democrats will support the removal of the Sandu Government, though they have not yet published their position officially. Meanwhile, sayings are already circulating in the Parliament’s lobby that the Socialists will form the next Government together with the Democrats.