Speaker of Moldovan parliament approves nominations of 7 new government officials after President Dodon's refusal
The Speaker of the Parliament of Moldova, Andrian Candu, acting in place of the suspended President Igor Dodon, signed off on seven appointments of new cabinet members who were then sworn in in the presence of Prime Minister Pavel Filip, the Newsmaker.md reports.
In particular, the Deputy Parliament speaker and former Prime Minister and leader of the European People’s Party, Iurie Leancă, was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration and the former deputy chairperson (2007-2011) of the Liberal Democratic Party and former president of the Constitutional Court, Alexandru Tanase, was appointed Minister of Justice.
Former Prime Minister Chiril Gaburici, who voluntarily stepped down in 2015 following a public scandal about his diploma, was appointed Minister of Economy and Infrastructure.
Tudor Ulianovschi, a former Ambassador of Moldova to Switzerland, was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration.
Kristina Lesnik, head of the foreign relations department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, was named Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration. The former director of the Blood Transfusion Center, Svetlana Chebotar, was appointed as Minister of Health, Labor, and Social Protection, while chancellor of the State Agrarian University of Moldova, Liviu Volkonovich, was named as Minister of Agriculture, Regional Development, and Environment.
As it was earlier reported, on January 2nd, the Constitutional Court of Moldova ruled the repeated refusal of President Dodon to appoint new members of the cabinet and their deputies as unconstitutional and temporarily suspended him from office. The court instead assigned the presidential duty of appointing members of the government to either the Speaker of the Parliament or the Prime Minister.