Candidate for prime minister discusses government program with Moldovan parliamentary majority
CHISINAU. Jan 18 (Interfax) - Pavel Filip, nominated as the candidate for prime minister in Moldova, has met with the factions of the Democratic and Liberal Parties and groups of former communists and liberal democrats, who have joined the new parliamentary majority.
"We have organized the work on the governmental program well and have determined four important areas. Today, these [theme] groups will summarize proposals from parliamentary factions and add them to the government program," Filip told reporters.
He said the meetings were "constructive".
In turn, a leader of the social-democratic platform uniting democrats and former communists, Violetta Ivanova, said after the meeting that four working groups would be created to address the program of the new government.
She said the groups had been assigned to focus on social, economic, legal and political matters.
"A program, which will bring prosperity to the country, will be finalized within days. We are confident we can produce a good program and form a competent government. We known Filip well, he possesses managerial qualities, and he is a professional who has proven to be a good leader," Ivanova said.
"We have not discussed the division of positions in the prospective government, just the criteria the prime minister and the ministers need to meet," she said.
"We think that the principle of dividing positions should be forgotten because people are tired of it. The principle of competence and expertise should prevail," Ivanova said.
Deputy Ion Balan said after Filip's meeting with seven deputies of the Liberal Democratic Party, they insisted on adding demands of the liberal democrats to the government program.
"We are not abandoning the goals which the Liberal Democratic Party faction has formulated and declared earlier, and we will insist that they be included in the government program and fulfilled," Balan said.
"The demands are the following: to implement the provisions of the Association Agreement with the EU, to hold a judicial reform and to de-politicize legal institutions, to resolve the crisis in the financial and banking sector which has created a very difficult situation in the country, and to expand measures of social support to citizens," he said.
"Today, seven Liberal-Democratic Party deputies are ready to back up this government consistent with the aforesaid terms," the deputy said.
In his words, the division of powers in the future government will be discussed in the upcoming days.
The formation of a new parliamentary majority in Moldova was announced on January 15 after Moldovan President Nicolae Timofti appointed head of his administration Ion Paduraru as the candidate for prime minister.
Once the formation of a parliamentary majority, consisting of 55 out of 101 deputies, was announced, Timofti repealed his order and nominated incumbent Information Technology and Communications Minister Pavel Filip for prime minister as a compromise suggested by the Democratic Party.
On Monday, the opposition Party of Socialists challenged the president's move in the Constitutional Court. It said the deadlines and the procedure for nominating a candidate for prime minister had been violated. The socialists also challenged the procedure in which the parliamentary majority was formed.
The law requires that coalitions be formed in the parliament after elections, by means of unification of factions. The new parliamentary majority comprises of two factions and deputies, who have seceded from the factions of the Party of Communists and the Liberal Democratic Party. They were excluded from the parties, on whose tickets they won the parliamentary elections.
Three rallies were held on Saturday, with a total turnout of approximately 50,000, opposed the nomination of Pavel Filip prime minister, whom they deemed to be "a man of oligarch Plahotniuc".