All news

Moldova’s parliament forms majority, which will nominate candidate for prime minister

A candidate is to be proposed on January 13

CHISINAU, January 11. /TASS/. A new parliamentary majority, which is due to nominate the candidate for prime minister, has been formed in Moldova after two months of difficult negotiations, leader of the Democratic Party Marian Lupu told reporters on Monday following consultations with the country’s President Nicolae Timofti held earlier in the day.

"We handed over to the president a list of 56 lawmakers who form part of this majority. We will offer the candidate for prime minister to the head of state before January 13," Lupu said. According to him, 35 members of the Social Democratic Platform, which comprises 20 parliamentarians from the Democratic Party and 14 former members of the Party of Communists, will form the basis of this majority. They were joined by 13 lawmakers from the Liberal Party and 8 from the Liberal Democratic Party who announced their withdrawal from these parties. So, the new majority has 56 seats, which is enough to form the government.

The opposition Party of Socialists, which has the largest faction that controls a quarter of seats (24), and 7 members of the Party of Communists, refused to take part in the consultations with Timofti. Leader of socialists Igor Dodon said this was due to the fact that the opposition favored the dissolution of parliament and early elections.

This is the second and last attempt to form the government after on January 4 the parliament boycotted the voting for the cabinet of Ion Sturza earlier nominated by Timofti. The meeting was attended by 47 of 101 parliamentarians, while 51 votes are needed for endorsing the cabinet. Two of the five factions - the Party of Socialists and the Party of Communists - refused to take part in the meeting. Only 34 members of Moldova’s Liberal Democratic Party and Liberal Party, who were part of the ruling Alliance for European Integration coalition, and three representatives of the European People’s Party expressed their readiness to support the composition and the program of the new cabinet. However, members of the Democratic Party that was part of the ruling coalition voted against Sturza’s cabinet.