Society has the right to expect correct decisions from the Constitutional Court. The political tendencies to influence and to hamper the exercise of the constitutional jurisdiction should be definitely stopped. When a decision is taken by the CC, this must be implemented, obeyed and put into practice in life, former CC judge Nicolae Osmochescu, university professor, said in a public debate titled “Constitutional Court swaying in the political wind: norm or deviation?”, which was staged by IPN News Agency.
According to Nicolae Osmochescu, when it goes to the crisis around the CC, we should speak about an attempt to influence politically the CC and its judges. “It is an attempt to exert influence made by different political parties. So, it is a process of direct political interference on the part of the political parties, both parliamentary and extraparliamentary, in the work of the Constitutional Court. It is not an internal crisis of the Constitutional Court,” stated the professor.
He noted that we cannot speak about a crisis inside the Constitutional Court for the simple reason that the current composition of the Constitutional Court was recently replaced. Also, there are insufficient arguments and there is insufficient constitutional jurisdiction practice gained by this makeup. “This is my opinion and position on what is going on around the activity of the Constitutional Court and around particular work of some of the CC judges.”
The professor said that political attempts to influence the CC and its judges were also made during the term in office of the first composition of the Constitutional Court of which he also formed part. But these were categorically rejected by the CC judges from the very beginning. Nicolae Osmochescu reminded of the dismissal of ex-minister of defense Pavel Creangă when the CC for the first time declared the then President’s decree to dismiss the former minister unconstitutional for the reason that the Government’s official request to sack him was absent.
He noted that the CC could react like this because the state of the then sociopolitical and economic system didn’t allow for political interference in the work of the CC judges. “Also, the then system for selecting and promoting CC judges was based not on political interests, but on the professionalism and integrity of judges. Then the Court refused categorically to accept any intention promoted by the political class,” stated Nicolae Osmochescu.
The debate “Constitutional Court swaying in the political wind: norm or deviation?” was the 131st installment of the series of debates “Developing political culture through public debates” that are supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.