On March 31, the Parliament approved the Decision on declaring a state of emergency on the entire territory of the Republic of Moldova, between April 1 and May 30, 2021, pursuant to art. 66 lit. m) of the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova and art. 19 of Law no. 212/2004 on the regime of state of emergency, siege and war.
The state of emergency was declared following a negative dynamic of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country in the last months1 . The previous state of emergency was imposed in 2020 (March 17 – May 15) and was followed until recently by a legal framework of similar restrictions defined as state of emergency in public health.
In the following period, the population will face more restrictions, including more severe limitation of rights and freedoms. According to the Parliament Decision, during the state of emergency the Commission for Exceptional Situations of the Republic of Moldova will issue provisions for the implementation of actions necessary to prevent, reduce and eliminate the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. The first set of restrictions, includes as of April 1, 2021:
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Prohibitions of assemblies, public demonstrations and other mass gatherings;
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A special regime of entry and exit from the country and a special regime for circulation in the country;
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Coordination of the activity of the mass media regarding: informing the population about the causes and proportions of the exceptional situation; familiarization of the population with the rules of behaviour during the exceptional situation; introduction of special rules for the use of telecommunications means.
It is not clear how the implementation of these measures will be carried out in practice, nor what additional measures would be adopted during the state of emergency, as the Interim Prime Minister Mr. Aureliu Ciocoi failed to offer a clear vision or a plan of actions in this regard.
The current Parliament failed to elect a new government since the resignation of the Ion Chicu government in December 2020, and therefore the President of the country has the legal grounds to dissolve it. At the same time, according to the legal framework, the Parliament cannot be dissolved during the state of emergency. It is likely that the state of emergency is a formal tool in the internal political warfare aimed to counter the President’s initiative to dissolve the Parliament, and thus to prolong its activity in the current composition.2
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- 1 The Decision is based on the Report of the Commission for Exceptional Situations of the Republic of Moldova on the need to declare a state of emergency, which refers to the extremely rapid spread of contamination, limited capacity of the entire health system, critical insufficiency of places in intensive care units, total number of hospitalized patients with severe and moderate forms, the increase in the number of deaths, the overload of the primary medicine segment, as well as on the negative and uncontrollable dynamics of public health indicators.
- 2https://radiochisinau.md/experti-despre-instituirea-starii-de-urgenta-a…; http://tvrmoldova.md/actualitate/constitutionalist-in-perioada-starii-d…
- 3http://tvrmoldova.md/actualitate/constitutionalist-in-perioada-starii-d…