Moldova a second Venezuela, or why Moldovan politics are more interesting than Game of Thrones series

Moldova, a tiny Eastern European country between Romania and Ukraine, for the last 48 hours, is facing with a deep political-constitutional crisis, when de-facto exist 2 Prime-Ministers with 2 Governments, 2 Presidents and one Parliament, that one of the sides of the “belligerents” considers illegal. The single difference between Moldova and Venezuela is that Moldova is not facing huge inflation and people are not starving.

Everything started on the 9th of March, when the Central Election Commission of Moldova, officially recognized the results of Parliamentary Elections that were held in February 2019. Members of the new Parliament became 4 parties:

1. Party of Socialist of Moldova – with 35 seats from 101 in total;

2. Democratic Party of Moldova – with 30 seats;

3. ACUM Electoral Bloc – with 26 seats;

4. Shor Party – with 7 seats.

For creating of a functional majority, assign a functional Government, by the law is needed a 51% of all Parliament componence. It means that no one from all elected parties cannot take on their own, control of the Government. All 3 major parties started the negotiations between them, that from the beginning looked like a very hard to be made. All because that Socialist Party is a pro-Russian party, ACUM Electoral Bloc is a pro-European, and Democratic Party is a declared pro-Moldovan one. In the same time, ACUM and Socialist once united in organizing protests against Vladimir Plahotniuc, the leader of Democratic Party, the person that almost all NGO in Moldova and International Organizations consider as an unofficial leader of the country, the person that controls almost everything in this land, with almost 3 million population.

None of these 3 parties, during almost last 3 months, succeed to create a coalition to take the legal power into their hands and to administrate the country. When the risk of early elections started to be more and more real for Moldovan society, representatives of EU, US and Russia arrived in Moldova, all of them on the same date of 3rd of June 2019. From the EU arrived Johannes Hahn, European Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement, from the US arrived Bradley Freden, Director of the East-European Affairs Office of the US State Department, and Dmitri Kozak, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia. All of them met with the leaders of major parties that entered in the Parliament, but none of them declared that they will make or not a coalition with another political force. The situation was very unclear till Saturday, the 8th of June one of the hottest Sundays in modern Moldovan history. On the 8th June, the deputies from Socialist Party and ACUM Electoral Bloc announced an unexpected Parliament Session, and during of 3-4 hours signed a Temporary Cooperation Agreement, also appointed the new Speaker, Zinaida Greceanaia, the head of the Socialist Party, and appointed Maia Sandu, the new Prime-Minister.

The surprise came when on the same day The Constitutional Court, declared that the Parliament has no power to appoint any Government, and should be dissolute because during of the last 3 months the new Government wasn’t formed. Both, the Parliament and The Constitutional Court made their decisions based on the art. 85 of the Moldovan Constitution, where is written that the Parliament can be Dissolute if the Government cannot be formed for the last 3 months. The difference is that the Parliament has dragged the law, that 3 months means from the 9th of March till the 9th of June, but the Constitutional Court dragged the law that 3 months means 90 days (from the 9th of March till the 7th of June).

Even this, the President of Moldova, Igor Dodon, that win the Presidential Elections as the former leader of the Party of Socialist of Moldova, a pro-Russian President, accepted the appointment of Maia Sandu, one of the leaders of pro-European ACUM Electoral Bloc, as the new Prime-Minister of Moldova. In the same day, the Parliament resigned from their positions next officials: Head of the Security and Information Service (Intelligence), the General Prosecutor of Moldova and the Head of Anticorruption National Agency.

From another side, on the 9th of June, the Constitutional Court named the interim Prime-Minister, Pavel Filip, from the Democratic Party of Moldova, as the new interim President of Moldova, resigned Igor Dodon, as the President of Moldova. Also, Pavel Filip, based on the power that Constitutional Court designated him, signed the Dissolution Act of the Parliament and announced the early elections on the 6th of September.

During this weekend, was published some videos, where the President of Moldova, was secretly recorded at the meeting with Vlad Plahotniuc, the leader of Democratic Party of Moldova. During this meeting, Igor Dodon, recognized the fact that he receives from Russia, around $700 000 per month for the work of Party of Socialist of Moldova. Also, he said that for the last 2 months he didn’t receive anything, and Vladimir Putin with Dmitri Kozak, told to Igor Dodon, to talk with Vlad Plahotniuc and to ask the money for the party’s activity, from Vlad Plahotniuc. Based on this video, the Democratic Party of Moldova blamed Igor Dodon, for the high betrayal of the country, because he receives money from the Russian Federation.

In the same time, EU officials already recognized the new Government, that is managed by Maia Sandu. Democratic Party organized a big meeting in the central part of Chisinau, were a lot of people from regions have been brought, and the Head of the Police declared that he doesn’t recognize the new Government and will be loyal to Pavel Filip.

But the final actual movement, happened when this article was written: Maia Sandu, as appointed Prime-Minister by the Parliament and by the President of the Republic of Moldova Igor Dodon, declared that the citizen Igor Dodon has to be judged for high betrayal of the country, because he declared the fact that he received funds for his party from Russian Federation.

In conclusion: Moldova has now 2 presidents, 2 Prime Minister, and after Maia Sandu was appointed by the President of Moldova as the Prime Minister, she declared that Igor Dodon has to be judged for the high betrayal of the country, for the money declared that he receives from Putin and Russia.

 

By Dumitru Condrea

Dumitru Condrea is the President of Moldovan Economic Freedom Institute “Milton Friedman”