Tudorel Toader, former Minister of Justice and judge of the Constitutional Court of Romania between 2006 and 2016, explained, for Adevărul, why Diana Șoșoacă, whose candidacy for the 2024 presidential elections was invalidated by the CCR, is forced to accept her situation .
Diana Sosoaca. ARCHIVE
The former minister Tudorel Toader also showed that the complaint of the SOS candidate in the presidential elections, in which she complains that she was not summoned to the CCR, cannot be supported by the law.
“The Constitutional Court stopped, so to speak, Mrs. Soșoacă’s path towards Cotroceni. We don’t know how long they would have gone down this road, but the Court’s decision is final, generally binding and without any appeal. Throughout this world and in the Constitution of Romania, it is written that the decisions are final and generally binding, at all constitutional courts. Until 2003, it was possible that the decision given by the CCR in a panel of 3 judges could be appealed to the full Court. In the revision of 2003, the possibility of contesting the decisions given by the panel of three judges was eliminated. In court, no subpoenas are issued, parties are not heard, and evidence is not administered“, declared the former judge at the CCR.
We remind you that, on Saturday, Diana Șoșoacă, the president of the SOS Romania party, reacted after her candidacy for the Presidency of Romania was rejected.
“I wasn’t even cited. Such a thing is impossible. I don’t even know what the subpoena looks like, which means that all due process rights have been grossly violated. I ask the Romanians to go out into the streets! This is unacceptable. The only nationalist who could win these elections”. Diana Șoșoacă transmitted, in a live on Facebook.
The MEP stated that the responsibility for this decision would belong to external influences, without providing clear evidence to support the accusations.
The former Minister of Justice specified that Diana Șoșoacă has an important segment of supporters, which makes the decision of the CCR, by which her candidacy was rejected, even more important and has an impact on the future elections for the Presidency of Romania. But there are legal arguments for which her candidacy could be rejected, both in the Romanian Constitution and in the electoral legislation.
“Any Romanian has the right to be elected, article 37 of the Romanian Constitution tells us. At the same time, public dignities can be held under the law. In article 27 of Law 370/2004, with subsequent amendments, regarding the presidential elections, the eligibility conditions of a candidate for the dignity of president of the republic are established, among them being the submission of the list with the 200,000 valid, valid signatures, expressed by citizens with the right to vote in Romania. Therefore, we await the reasoning of the CCR decision, let’s see if the Court will also refer to the non-fulfillment of one or some of those legal conditions for candidacy”, says Tudorel Toader.
Attachment to the rule of law, discussed
In addition to the possibility that Diana Șoșoacă does not meet the conditions specified in the electoral legislation, mandatory to be able to run for the presidential elections in 2024, Tudorel Toader also notes another aspect that could have been taken into consideration in the CCR’s decision to admit the appeal with regarding the candidacy of the European parliamentarian in the 2024 presidential elections.
“There is another legislative landmark in the fundamental law: Article 40, paragraph 2, which refers to the activity of parties and organizations. The text of the law shows that parties or organizations that, through their goals or activity, militate against the principles of the rule of law or Romania’s sovereignty, integrity or independence are unconstitutional. But the text of the law refers to parties and organizations. The Court did not analyze the constitutionality of Ms. Sosoacă’s party. I believe that the constitutional court examined Mrs. Sosoacă’s attachment to the values of the rule of law. And if the Court judged that this attachment to the values of the rule of law is missing, it is possible that the unconstitutionality also consisted in this aspect”. stated former minister Tudorel Toader.
The Constitutional Court issued its first decision on June 10, 1992, the former CCR judge also points out, and since then and until now it has issued many decisions admitting exceptions or objections.
“Of course, the admission decision creates a precedent if the solution is repeated through the lens of the same considerations from the Constitution. There is a principle that says that a legislative solution declared unconstitutional cannot be resumed by another normative act. If a similar situation arises, the Constitutional Court will refer to this decision and invoke it, if an absolutely similar situation arises, and the criticisms will be formulated from the perspective of the same constitutional norms”declares Tudorel Toader.
