Any such decision casts a regrettable shadow over those who are trying to govern honestly, transparently and openly. It is difficult, but nevertheless, those who have promised us they will be honest, transparent and open, must not rejoice nor accept the cowardly decisions of those who try to butter them up and flatter them at any cost.

The latest avalanche of events has captured our attention. And without intending, we overlook important things that are good to know and analyze critically.

Not that I regret the dissolution of any political party in Moldova, including the disintegration of the Democratic Party (PDM). But it’s disgusting to witness the detachment of some former subservient members from those they have served for years. They quit their positions, step back on decisions, abandon their voters, and try to gain recognition actively flirting with the new power.

Under these circumstances, if the new government doesn’t want to breed traitors it’s important that they keep the party switchers, whose intentions are to associate with those who are in power today, on the outside. Party switchers will always remain party switchers, in any circumstances.

And I don’t just mean the group of mayors from Donduseni, who had become heads of local public authorities with the support of the PDM, and now, when the party is going through hard times, they say they won’t have anything to do with this party. Don’t these mayors understand that PDM is exactly the same as it was up till now?

This is the latest example of party switching and political cowardice, but it is not the first nor the last case of this kind. Everyday, at every step, we witness cowardly and disgusting flattery. Unfortunately this cannot be sanctioned by law or judicial decisions.

For example, how do you judge the mayors who say they no longer want to be party members because PDM changed the date of the extraordinary party congress? How do you judge them admitting that they now see themselves in one of the governing parties?

How do you judge those judges who, for months, kept Gheorghe Petic in jail? This former border police was a member of the Truth and Dignity Platform. His case changed only after the change of power and after the involvement of deputies from the parliamentary majority. Then, the judges decided to release him under judicial control and to send the file for reexamination. Were there no sufficient arguments to do this before? And if there were no arguments for Gheorghe Petic to be released some months ago, where did they come from now? Have the judges in Moldova lost all sense of honor in their profession?

Let’s recall the manner in which the plenum of the Superior Council of Magistracy (CSM) removed three members of the Council of the National Institute of Justice (INJ). Those three had been the object of scandalous disclosures in the press for years, yet they have been dismissed just recently.  In this way, at the insistence of the new Minister of Justice, the CSM demonstrated its ability to clean up the judiciary system. The same Council changed its “visions, principles, and values” ​​overnight. Who stood in the way of the CSM and impeded it from “cleaning” the justice system before July 23?

Likewise, the Chisinau Court of Appeal annulled the CSM decision from 16 October 2018, according to which Gheorghe Balan, the current interim director of the General Inspectorate of Police, was dismissed as a judge. A simple question: why now? How come, from 16 October 2018 to 16 July 2019, the CSM decision was perfectly legal, and in just one single day it became perfectly illegal? What do the Court of Appeal judges have to say about this? And those from CSM?

Any such decision casts a regrettable shadow over those who are trying to govern honestly, transparently and openly. It is difficult, but nevertheless, those who have promised us they will be honest, transparent and open, must not rejoice nor accept the cowardly decisions of those who try to flatter them at any cost.

Aneta Grosu, aneta@zdg.md