Monica Babuc, a politician from the Republic of Moldova, will be heard next Wednesday in the Culture and Foreign Policy Committees of the Romanian Senate for the position of director of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Chisinau (ICR), writes Libertatea, which quotes sources from the ICR and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE)

Monica Babuc is supported by the PSD, according to Libertatea.

Iulian Bulai, USR deputy and chair of the Culture Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, criticised the PSD-PNL proposal for the leadership of the ICR Chisinau. “Monica Babuc is a close associate of fugitive oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc, accused in several criminal cases of fraud, money laundering and organized crime. Babuc led his party on an interim basis after his flight in 2019… The followers of oligarch Plahotniuc cannot represent Romania’s interests in Chisinau,” Bulai said in a press release.

Monica Babuc has been an affiliate of the Democratic Party, a party controlled by oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc, since 2010. Between 30 May 2013 and 8 June 2019, she held several top positions in the Moldovan government, that of minister of culture and minister of education, culture and research. She was a member of the Moldovan Parliament for two terms, from 2014 to 2015 and from 2019 to 2021. Between 18 June 2019 and 4 December 2020, she served as Vice-President of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova.