Nicolae Eșanu, secretary of state at the Ministry of Justice, said the Constitutional Court’s judgements cannot be questioned and he regrets if it’s right that the President of Moldova was advised not to obey the judgements on the signing of decrees to appoint ministers. He stated such an opinion in a public debate organized by IPN News Agency and Radio Moldova.
Nicolae Eşanu noted that the CC, in accordance with the Constitution, is empowered to interpret the Supreme Law and what the Court says has legal authority in a Constitution interpretation matter. This means that in case of a divergence, the Constitutional Court’s opinion prevails. Parliament can have another opinion and can intervene as a constituent legislator with amendments to the Constitution if it considers the Constitution should be understood and applied otherwise, but it is also obliged to respect the CC judgements.
According to the secretary of state, as long as the constitutional text is not amended, the Constitutional Court’s judgements cannot be doubted. “I agree there are particular problems with some of the Court’s judgments, but I will not go into details. When the Constitutional Court pronounces on a matter, the problem is definitely solved for all the state authorities. When the court decisions are disputed, the rule of law principles are undermined ,” stated Nicolae Eşanu, noting if the interpretation of the text of a law leads to an absurd situation, this interpretation cannot be accepted.
He noted he does not have the right to criticize the CC judgements, but has many questions as to the solution it provided in the case of the suspension of the President from office. “But no discussions on the issue can continue if the Court already passed its judgement. The situation in the future can be changed by legislative ways, but until it remains unchanged, we can speak only about how we should execute what the Court decided,” stated the secretary of state.
According to Nicolae Eşanu, any public authority should obey the Constitution and when this goal is achieved, there will be chances for really changing the situation in the Republic of Moldova. “When the CC judgments and the country’s laws are not respected by the public authorities, the chances for the citizens to obey the legal norms are almost equal to zero,” he stated.
