Regrets and joys of Alexandru Tanase

Current Minister of Justice Alexandru Tanase regrets that he could not make changes at the Supreme Court of Justice, but is glad that he found out he has a large number of friends. The minister spoke about his regrets and joys in a meeting of the Chisinau Press Club on April 15, Info-Prim Neo reports. “My biggest regret after 15 months as minister of justice is that we did not manage to bring home Mihai Poalelungi so that he headed the Supreme Court of Justice. {(Mihai Poalelungi is a judge at the ECHR. He applied to take part in the contest for the post of Supreme Court of Justice president, but then withdrew his application – e.n.)} I’m sure that a fundamental reform of the legal system is not possible until a person who sees the reformation as one should is appointed to head the Court. The things I tried to promote were based on the experience of other state. They weren’t Moldovan inventions,” said Alexandru Tanase. He expressed his conviction that the current president of the Supreme Court of Justice Ion Muruianu does not have chances of being accepted in Parliament. “I don’t think that somebody will try to play a dual game and use certain schemes. The law is stupid as it allows electing the Court’s president by a simple majority of the votes of those attending. It can be used to gain advantages. But I want to believe that there are responsible persons who will not allow the reform to remain stagnant for four years. Nothing will change until Muruianu is there,” Alexandru Tanase said. He stressed that leaving politics and the post of minister does not mean that he was subdued by the system and thus did not manage to complete what he started. “I can sincerely say that the system did not break me. But I had high hopes that Muruianu will be removed. I did not expect that the Constitutional Court will change its 15-year-old practice for one particular case,” said Tanase. “Nobody will be happy and glad to make the change which I had recourse to. It wasn’t an imposed solution. I discussed with the Premier and we reached a consensus. I do not want to criticize Vlad Filat as we had been together for a long year and did many good things. The press is free to comment, but many of the comments I saw were not truthful,” said Alexandru Tanase. He also said that he was glad he was supported by a large number of people in his career move. “I feel not as I expected. Many of the bureaucrats with whom I talked said nobody phones you and nobody needs you when you lose your job. I found out I have very many friends and supporters after I tendered by resignation. I did not think that so many people sympathize with me, at least on Facebook,” the minister stated. Recently, Alexandru Tanase was named by the Government as judge of the Constitutional Court. He was sworn in as judge in Parliament. Within 30 days of the appointment, he is to vacate the seat of minister of justice.