Moldova. Brief explanation:

1) There is a constitutional stand off. One the one hand you have an absolute majority of the Parliament elected in February and President Dodon. On the other hand, you have an outgoing government and the Constitutional Court. On the surface it is not unlike Venezuela. But in reality in Moldova the President and the Parliament are working together. Both the president and the parliament are backed by a clear majority of the population.

2) The outgoing government of Pavel Filip obtained in February 2019 less than a third of the votes. They have 30 out of 101 MPs. Yet they do not want to give up power and hand over government buildings to the incoming government. They rely on the Constitutional Court to block and delay a smooth transition of power. They also want to organize early elections in September while controlling and influencing the state apparatus.

3) So how independent are Moldovan courts and judges? Here I will refer you to the EU, US, the European Parliament and the Council of Europe. They all criticized harshly Moldovan courts. In 2018 the EU suspended financial assistance to the Filip Government because of the ‘deterioration of rule of law and democracy in Moldova’, the politicization of the Courts and their involvement attempts to fight against political opponents. Now the same Government and the same Court system that has been harshly criticized by the EU do not want to cede power. 

Nicu Popescu