President of Moldova Igor Dodon announced that he will not appoint Valeriu Munteanu as Minister of Defense. He hinted that Munteanu "does not meet the requirements for this position." The statement was made yesterday in the TV show "Access Direct".

"I'm not accustomed to bargain one trouble for another. From now on no minister will be appointed if he does not meet the requirements for this position. A Defence Minister should be a soldier who knows very well how this ministry functions, that would already have experience in the ministry and would be accepted by the group," said Dodon.

The head of state said he did not exclude that he might propose to the Prime Minister a candidate for this position.

We remind that President Igor Dodon signed the decree on dismissal of Defense Minister Anatol Salaru on December 27.

"A few minutes ago I have signed the decree on the dismissal of the disreputable minister Salaru. Thanks to Mihai Ghimpu for this demarche and I suggested to do the same with other liberal ministers in the current Cabinet," said then Igor Dodon.

However, Liberal leader Mihai Ghimpu announced that as Minister of Defense will be proposed the current Environment Minister, Valeriu Munteanu.

Environment Minister claims that Dodon is obliged to appoint him as defense minister in this regard the Liberal Party will notify the Constitutional Court "for clarification".

"The current president of Moldova is dominated by a paradigm of Soviet thinking, when the Defense Minister should have come from military personnel. Times when defense ministers were concerned specifically with the parade step cadence of the military personnel, the gloss pipes from the tank and their belt buckles have passed, today's tasks are others, as well as approaches ... We will prepare a complaint to the Constitutional Court (CC) to interpret the Constitution, to clarify for Mr. Dodon the extent of the President's term in this area and only after a decision in this regard of the CC, to be proposed to the President for appointing a new Minister of Defense, otherwise acid polemics (and extremely harmful) in the subject breaks out every time when will be necessary (politics) to change a minister," Munteanu posted on Facebook.