Not the type of republic ensures the democratic value of society, but the way in which the constitutional norms are designed and the mechanisms for controlling how these constitutional norms and punishment mechanisms are obeyed are implemented, the head of the Center of Initiatives and Public Authorities Monitoring Ion Dron stated in IPN’s public debate “Presidency, President and presidential elections: processes, tendencies and effects”.
According to him, in practice there are no pure government regimes and even if two states, even neighboring ones, have the same form of government, the way in which that system, either it is a parliamentary, a presidential or a semi-presidential one, develops and works differs in them.
“Today we reached the situation when things go worse than in 1994. In 1994, we started with a semi-presidential regime and started well. In 2000, we switched over to a parliamentary republic, also well. Since 2016, things have worsened,” stated Ion Dron.
To his mind, today Moldova is not a semi-presidential republic as a semi-presidential republic is based on a series of doctrinal principles, while Moldova has an amalgam of decisions and constitutional norms worked out and adopted according to the conduct of particular politicians, amid frustrations and personal ambitions.
“We cannot continue in the same way. We should identify a valid, authentic form of government – either parliamentary or presidential or semi-presidential. It is important that those who look at us now realize that we need these discussions. We can no longer hide our head in the sand.”
In another development, Ion Dron said that from political viewpoint, the post of President is attractive to any politician because it is firstly a rostrum from which one can promise anything, can do nothing and ultimately blame the Government or Parliament for everything.
According to Ion Dron, attention should be devoted to the content, not to the form. By form, the presidential institution is attractive, but in essence it is a long waltz that only makes noise. “It is actually a nursery of inter-institutional blockages or major political crises.”
The public debate “Presidency, President and presidential elections: processes, tendencies and effects” was the 152nd installment of the series “Developing political culture through political debates” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
