The President may not propose a prime ministerial candidate without a Parliament that has its leadership elected. The impossibility of Parliament to assemble in the absence of a body to convene it renders the President incapable of making the nomination. This is what the Constitutional Court decided today in response to a request for constitutional interpretation from the President’s Office. 

 

Under the judgment, the President may still consult with parliamentary groups to pick a candidate irrespective of whether a Parliament leadership exists. However the duty of making the nomination is strictly conditioned on the existence of a Speaker as a “partner of institutional dialog”. 

 

The CC held that the absence of such a “partner” that represents Parliament and the lack of a body to convene Parliament meetings prevents the President from designating a prime ministerial candidate. 

 

Moreover, the impossibility of Parliament to assemble and discuss Cabinet investment equals, under the CC ruling, to an instance of rejecting a request for investment.

 

As a rule, an instance of such rejection by Parliament doesn’t represent a rejection of the nominee proper, but rather of the proposed Cabinet agenda and the list of members, notes the Court. The possibility of a second request for investment reflects the candidate’s chance to make changes before approaching Parliament again to ask for a vote of confidence. However, there may be exceptional cases when, following consultation, a candidate himself/herself is rejected in Parliament. Consequently, the Court allows that, as a matter of exception, another candidate could be nominated, but not before a new round of consultations.

 

The ruling is final and irreversible and takes effect immediately.