The current Parliament can fulfill its mandate till the end if the MPs only make statement as to their wish to have snap parliamentary elections, but do not take steps to induce them. Snap parliamentary elections can be induced only if the MPs come to the sittings, discuss, but do not adopt laws. This is the legal motivate for dissolving Parliament and calling snap elections that is stipulated in Article 85 of the Constitution. There is no other legal solution, former CC judge Nicolae Osmochescu stated in IPN’s public debate “Dissolution of Parliament and snap elections. Experts “translate” actions and statements of politicians to make them clear to the general public”.
According to Nicolae Osmochescu, the effects, including the legal ones, of the non-solving of the current governmental crisis can be very negative as the delay is in favor of the PSRM, which will later be able to shift responsibility onto Maia Sandu. “The processes should be considered not only through the eyes of the politicians, but also through the eyes of the ordinary citizens so that what happened until now, including the election of the President, leads to positive things. Anything else leads to economic degradation and the effects are negative. The politicians should sit at the negotiating table and make compromises as this is the art of politics,” stated the ex-CC judge.
He noted only those who elected Parliament, the voters, can decide if this is able or unable to fulfill its duties. “The Constitutional Court does not have the right and power to decide if the MPs can or cannot form a parliamentary majority that would form the Government. The Constitution and the Electoral Code cannot be interpreted so that they provide something like this or the idea that Parliament is the only legislative body elected by the people, which exercises sovereignty in the name and based on the mandate of the people, is compromised,” he stated.
According to Nicolae Osmochescu, no one hinders the MPs from securing two thirds of the votes of MP to decide the possibility of self-dissolution of Parliament. “There should be proposed a bill to amend the Constitution, which would go through all the approval stages and would be endorsed by the CC and then adopted by Parliament. For example, this can provide that if Parliament does not fulfill its duties, it can be dissolved with two thirds of votes of MP.”
In another development, the former CC judge said there is no legal notion of “transitory government” as some political forces say. This can exist only there where there is no legal, constitutional Parliament. There are “fully-pledged” and “interim” governments. But an interim government cannot fulfill particular tasks, like approving a lending agreement. The current, interim government cannot undertake international commitments at foreign level and will work until a new government is named. A fully-pledged government in the current context is possible and would be legal.
The public debate “Dissolution of Parliament and snap elections. Experts “translate” actions and statements of politicians to make them clear to the general public” is the 168th of the series “Developing political culture through public debates” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
