President Igor Dodon helped achieve a new ambition of the Democratic Party (PDM) – the referendum on the reduction of the seats of MP. According to the authors of a new Sic! article, the President says he is in opposition to the PDM government, but he often contributes to the implementation of Democrats’ initiatives either directly or indirectly – through the Socialist parliamentary group - as it happened in the case of the mixed electoral system, IPN reports.
“Sometimes, Igor Dodon becomes yet principled and is suspended for five minutes, while Speaker Andrian Candu signs laws and decrees instead of him. Usually, the President refuses to accept the government reshuffles of the Democrats. As to laws, he refused to sign only the law against the Russian propaganda and the new Audiovisual Code. His persistent resistance can be surely understood. It is hard to understand when namely Igor Dodon choses to resist,” says the article.
With reference to the law on the referendum, the Sic! authors say this plebiscite was made possible by a secret amendment to the Election Code. According to them, the scenario was the same as in the case of duty-free gas stations: the law to amend a number of legislative acts, amendment added before the second reading and vote on the part of the majority without discussions and debates in commissions. Unlike the gas stations, this time the President directly supported the referendum idea. Moreover, he said the Democrats stole this from them.
Igor Dodon promoted and promulgated also the package of laws on capital and fiscal amnesty. The article says the President tried to legitimize the initiative, making reference to a similar bill dating from the period he held the post of minister of economy. According to the authors, in the current context, after the Russian Laundromat and the theft of the US$ 1 billion, the capital amnesty could provide an opportunity for returning to the country and legalizing the money obtained by such schemes. The opposition, the EU, the IMF and the U.S. are all warned that this reform will diminish Moldova’s capacity to fight money laundering, legitimizes the theft and corruption and will affect the business climate in Moldova. However, in Igor Dodon’s view, these risks do not deserve being taken into account.
“Another controversial initiative of the Democrats that was promulgated by the President without much fuss was that on citizenship by investment. Igor Dodon said such a mechanism for attracting investment should have been adopted long ago. He welcomed the idea so much that he called on Russian businessmen to obtain Moldovan citizenship even before the law took effect or before the Government proposed an exact mechanism for this scheme. It’s true that the President could avoid all the criticism leveled at this bill by saying that the exact regulations were later approved by the Government. However, when looking more attentively, we see that the promulgated law also has some interesting provisions. For example, it stipulates that the President’s decree on the provision of nationality will contain only the identification data of applicants’ files, not yet their name and surname. Evidently, even if anonymous, all the new citizens will be as clean as a whistle,” runs the article.
The authors make reference to the National Arena. According to them, President Dodon promulgated the budget law by which 70 hectares were allocated in Stăuceni for building the polyvalent arena there. The President also said that Moldova needed such a project, but noted the money should have come from private investors, not from the state. “It’s a pity that such thoughts appeared to him only after he promulgated the law. Now the contract for the construction of the Arena was already signed. Besides the 70 hectares about whose value the authorities prefer not to speak, Moldova will also pay €43 million in tranches for building the hall. The first 200 million lei was allocated from the budget for roads,” reads the article.
In conclusion, the Sic! authors say the criteria by which Igor Dodon decides whether to promulgate a law or not are not clear. His opposition to the PDM government is increasingly unconvincing, while the occasional suspensions are no longer credible. Every time the Democrats have a controversial bill that is criticized by the opposition of the right, civil society and the foreign partners, the President promulgates it without hesitation.
The full article in the Romanian can be read here. Sic! is a fact-checking, promise-tracking and explainer project implemented by IPN with support from Soros Foundation Moldova and the Black Sea Trust.
