After the Constitutional Court’s ruling of April 28 and given that the electoral period practically started, expert Igor Boțan believes the National Extraordinary Public Health Commission should have urgently held a meeting and reintroduced the state of public health emergency so that the public and central administration took the protection measures into account. “We are in a vacuum as regards the administration of the pandemic crisis,” Igor Boțan stated at the beginning of IPN’s public debate “About state of emergency in the country and at the Constitutional Court: motives, players, solutions”.
According to Igor Boțan, the state of public health emergency expired on April 15, while the state of emergency was declared unconstitutional. In the current rather difficult pandemic situation, with about 400 infections a day, the country does not have any type of emergency and this is absolutely abnormal.
Professor, university lecturer Alexandru Arsene, doctor habilitate in constitutional law, said the Constitutional Court’s ruling that the Parliament decision to declare a state of emergency is unconstitutional and the issuing of the decree to dissolve Parliament and to call snap elections for July 11 covered a long path up to this moment. “The process included three nominations by decree, one of the nominated candidates being presented to Parliament and two being blocked, consultations and other constitutional issues. Measures were taken to avoid such a denouement, but the end was yet different. The opportunity belonged exclusively as a discretionary right to President Maia Sandu, who took it”.
According to international public health expert Ala Tocarciuc, from the angle of the pandemic, the political decisions should be in favor of the people and of the health system. ”Regrettably, we have what we have. We had a short period of state of emergency in 2020 and in 2021, with reference to the recognition of the heath crisis. We practically denied the existence of the crisis in 2020 and 2021,” she stated, noting the decision to annul the state of emergency was expected as legislative and procedural matters weren’t respected. “My question is, to what extend the politicians realize now the existence of the health crisis in our country?” said Ala Tocarciuc.
Doru Petruți, director general of the Sociological Research Company [imas], said the Constitutional Court is not the most trusted institution among the citizens and there are interesting perceptions related to this institution. “As many other institutions that are in a prolonged credibility crisis, the Constitutional Court, with a credibility level of about 15%, cannot boast. The perceptions of the Court during the past few years have been permanently related to the influence of different political players. Nevertheless, the CC, unlike the Prosecutor’s Office or the courts of law, has a plus of credibility, but the margins are very small,” said Doru Petruți, noting that a study on image and activity issues was commissioned by the CC in 2017, but its results weren’t made public, probably because of how they looked.
President Maia Sandu on April 28 signed a decree to dissolve Parliament after the Constitutional Court ruled that the Parliament decision to declare a state of emergency was unconstitutional.
