Teodor Meleșcanu’s election at the helm of the Romanian Senate has been unconstitutional, the Romanian Constitutional Court (CCR) decided on Wednesday, when it ruled in a complaint against Melescanu’s appointment as Senate Speaker.
The complaint had been filed by several MPs from ALDE, PNL, PMP and UDMR after Teodor Melescanu had won the Senate Speaker position in September last year following Calin Popescu Tariceanu’s resignation due to the fact his party, ALDE, had quit the ruling coalition with PSD in August.
Although an ALDE member back then, Melescanu refused to comply with the party’s decision to quit ruling and to step down from the position of Foreign Minister and he was thus ousted from ALDE. Later on, Melescanu joined PSD and was named Senate Speaker.
The CCR judges have repeatedly delayed a ruling in this complaint filed by 33 lawmakers. CCR postponed a decision on November 27, 2019 for December 11, 2019 and then for January 22.
In retort to today’s CCR ruling, Melescanu said he is waiting for the Court’s reasoning and after that he “will most probably comply with it”.
“I am waiting for the official reasoning of the judges. A CCR ruling is enforceable and I will comply with it and resign from the Senate’s leadership“, he told HotNews.ro.
The Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes and the Memory of Romanian Exile (IICCMER) has also started an investigation on Teodor Melescanu’s past activity as representative of the Romanian delegation to the conference in Vienna during December 19-20, 1989, when he is accused of “hiding the truth” regarding the anti-communist revolution in Timisoara back then.