Legal commission endorses Liberals’ bill on formation of factions

The legal commission for appointments and immunities approved the Liberal Party’s bill that bans the formation of parliamentary groups 10 days after the institution of Parliament, Info-Prim Neo reports. The bill was passed after the Liberal-Democrat Tudor Deliu and the leader of the Liberal Party Mihai Ghimpu exchanged replies. The first was against including the bill in the agenda of the commission, arguing no consensus was reached. For his part, Mihai Ghimpu accused the Lib-Dems of playing the game of the leader of the group of Socialists Igor Dodon, who said that he will create a new parliamentary group. “It is an interest that I do not understand. We are alliance colleagues. The faction of the Liberal Party votes for all the posts of the alliance colleagues, but they do not vote for our bills. They know that we always make concessions, but it’s over now,” said Mihai Ghimpu. In the end, the bill was included in the agenda and endorsed by the commission, with the votes of the Liberal, Communist and Democratic lawmakers. The leader of the Communist faction Maria Postoiko said the Communist MPs supported this bill because only the election runners have the right to form factions. “Those who join later, the fugitives, are not election runners. This change is welcome,” she stated. The commission also approved another bill submitted by the Liberal Party, which suggests increasing the number of members of the Standing Bureau from 13 to 14 so that the Liberals have two representatives on the Bureau. Now they are represented only by Ion Hadirca. A number of MPs left the Communist faction in the 19th legislature, including Igor Dodon, Zinaida Greceanyi, Veronica Abramchuk, Vadim Misin, Oleg Babenko, Tatiana Botnariuc, and Ion Cebanu. Igor Dodon earlier said that he intends to set up a parliamentary group. A group must include at least five lawmakers.