The bill to limit the parliamentary immunity didn’t garner the necessary number of votes for being passed. As it requires making changes to the Constitution, it was to gather at least 67 votes, but only 55 MPs of the government coalition voted in favor. The Communist opposition, the unaffiliated MPs and Democratic MP Dumitru Diacov voted against, IPN reports.

The bill provides that the investigation of lawmakers can be started without the preliminary accord of Parliament. Thus, it allowed arresting, searching and suing MPs without the consent of the legislative body.

One of the bill authors, Democratic MP Sergiu Sarbu said the limitation of immunity would have increased people’s confidence in lawmakers as everyone must be equal before the law. Dumitru Diacov said yet that this is a populist initiative. “Such a bill must be put forward when society reaches another level,” he stated.

Communist MP Eduard Musuc said the bill is populist is character because, in all these years, no request by the prosecutor general to remove the parliamentary immunity was rejected.

The leader of the Liberal-Democratic parliamentary group Valeriu Strelet said the bill is important because there were cases when the MPs ill-treated prosecutors and even committed wrongdoings, hiding themselves behind the immunity.

The initiative to limit the parliamentary immunity was submitted on the recommendation of the European Union with the aim of increasing transparency in the legislative work. Currently, the parliamentary immunity can be withdrawn at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office by a majority of votes.