Moldova top court removes president News
Moldova top court removes president

The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova has removed President Igor Dodon from his post and appointed former Prime Minister Pavel Filip.

Dodon is a member of the Russian-backed Socialist Party, which won 35 of the 101 legislative seats in the February elections. While the Socialist Party was the largest bloc in parliament, they had failed to form a government by court mandated deadline Friday. On Saturday, Dodon announced that his party had formed a government with the liberal-populist party ACUM, but the Constitutional Court ruled Sunday that by missing the Friday deadline Dogon had refused to fulfill his constitutional duty.

Pavel Filip, the man replacing Dogon, is a member of the second largest party in parliament, the PDM. The PDM is broadly pro-western and favors Moldova joining the EU.

Filip immediately announced new elections to be held in September.

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