Eurasia Press & News
The Communist faction fumes each time the nine ministers, together with Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca of Chisinau, participate in Parliament’s meetings.
Members of Parliament will be able to concurrently hold a second office for a period of up to six months, under an amendment due to be considered in the legislature next week.
“The proposed amendment makes it possible for the deputies to occupy certain top state positions, for a period of up to six months”, Ion Plesca, head of Parliament’s legal commission, has said.
If endorsed, the amendment will authorize nine Cabinet members, including Prime Minister Vlad Filat, to keep their seats in Parliament beyond the deadline of October 25. Otherwise, one of the seats must be vacated, according to the current legislation.
The Communist faction fumes each time the nine ministers, together with Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca of Chisinau, participate in Parliament’s meetings. “This is not just disrespect for the delimitation of the branches of power, this is also usurpation of authority. Mr Chirtoaca has de jure renounced his (parliamentary) mandate, but de facto attends the meetings, votes, speaks out before Parliament”, said Communist MP Grigore Petrenco.
Leonid Bujor, MP of the Moldova Noastra Alliance and concurrently Minister of Education, argued that, following the letter of the law, the ministers are allowed to seat in the legislature until October 25, after which they must renounce membership of Parliament. “Remarks by some fellow MPs in the case of Dorin Chirtoaca are not appropriate. There was a case where, after the April 5 elections, the ministers of the Greceanyi Cabinet attended legislative sittings more than one month. Now they changed their attitude, when after the July 29 elections they saw AIE form and found themselves in the opposition”, stated Leonid Bujor.
Still with the deadline set for October 25, the MPs-turned-ministers will be in Parliament on October 23, when the legislature is to elect the president.
