ON Tuesday, the 11th of July 2006, the editorial offices of the newspapers and TV stations received a public statement from the Constitutional Court. The statement read that, during the meeting on the 11th of July 2006, the respective institution declared as unconstitutional the terms of the Article no. 12, Paragraph 1 of Law no. 3 in 2001 regarding the organization and deployment of the Referendum. Therefore, the Constitutional Court gave Traian Basescu the weapon for which he had been fighting in the last half of year: the possibility of starting a referendum based on each problem he could ever think about.
According to the news, the Constitutional Court had debated "the unconstitutionality exception brought into discussion by the Peopleâs Attorney".
This part of the statement was a huge surprise:
a) the Peopleâs Attorney has the right, according to article 13, paragraph 7 of Law 35 in 1997, to approach the Constitutional Court due to issues regarding the unconstitutionality of certain already valid laws and decrees.
The law of the referendum exists since February the 24th 2000. The present Peopleâs Attorney, SDP (the Social Democratic Party) member Ioan Muraru, is here since 2001. For five years, he could have approach the Constitutional Court due to the Law of the referendum. He didnât do it. Could he not have noticed for five years that Romania had a valid law that violates the Constitution?
b) the public opinion is not aware of any situation before 2006 in which the Peopleâs Attorney approached the Constitutional Court due to the unconstitutionality of any valid law.
c) with his approach, SDP member Ioan Muraru has helped a SDP adversary, Traian Basescu, enormously.
For the really initiated people, this event on Tuesday, the 11th of July 2006, hasnât been a surprise at all. They were expecting it. This is be
