New Constitutional Court judges to be sworn in on Sunday
The new judges of the Constitutional Court will be sworn into office on Sunday, August 17. The ceremony will take place before a special session of Parliament, according to Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu.
"To this end, I will convene the Parliament's Permanent Bureau on Friday," the speaker wrote on his Facebook page Tuesday evening.
The five judges who will assume their posts at the Constitutional Court on August 17 are: Liuba Șova and Nicolae Roșca, appointed by Parliament; Sergiu Litvinenco and Domnica Manole, designated by the Government; and Ion Malanciuc, selected through a competition organized by the Superior Council of Magistracy.
The new High Court judges were appointed for a six-year term.
Three of the five individuals—Domnica Manole, Liuba Șova, and Nicolae Roșca—have held the same position until now.
The haste with which the "new-old" judges were appointed to the Constitutional Court at the end of June, as well as the political affiliation of Sergiu Litvinenco, a former deputy of the Action and Solidarity Party and ex-Minister of Justice, has been criticized by civil society and the opposition.
Civil society also criticized the lack of transparency in the designation of the High Court judges, with four of them being announced on June 19 by Prime Minister Dorin Recean and Speaker Igor Grosu through late-night messages published on their Facebook pages.
Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu explained the authorities' haste at the time, stating that while the term of five of the six magistrates was ending in August, the Constitutional Court needed to become functional before the parliamentary elections on September 28.
Also, the mandates of five current members of the Constitutional Court expire on August 16: Serghei Țurcan (appointed by the Superior Council of Magistracy), Domnica Manole and Vladimir Țurcan (appointed by Parliament), and Liuba Șova and Nicolae Roșca (appointed by the Government).
Meanwhile, Viorica Puică, who was designated a judge at the Constitutional Court in 2023, will continue her term until 2029.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
