After the Parliament dismissed the Government former Prime Minister Maia Sandu said that on November 12 the Parliament betrayed not just a Government that defends the interests of the people, but every citizen who put their hopes that soon in Moldova justice will be done and life will be better.

On November 12, less than half a year after its investment, the Socialists and the Democratic Party dismissed the Sandu Government. In fact, it was an expected action, doomed to happen sooner or later, since the ACUM Bloc allowed President Igor Dodon to control everything in the state, and the ACUM Bloc remained a rather formal governing partner in an alliance “founded” by Moscow.

The dismissal of the Sandu Government was a political plot, which Moldova has been entitled to several times since 1990: the Governments of Mircea Druc (1992), Valeriu Muravschi (1993), Ion Sturza (1999), Vladimir Filat (2013), who suffered the same fate. Few have learned their lesson or perhaps even no one. We will soon find out who conspired the plot, depending on which direction things will evolve. 

However, what happened on November 12 in Parliament is, apparently at least, more than a Government dismissal. On November 12, the Socialists’ and the Democrats’ vote brought about the downfall of the monstrous coalition or the axiomatic hybrid formed from the Socialist Party and the ACUM Bloc (Action and Solidarity Party and the Truth and Dignity Platform Party) – this so-called anti-oligarchic political experiment. 

• Moldova’s Anti-Oligarchic Government Falls. What Will Happen Next?

The coalition, from the very beginning, was meant to be short-lived (for three, at most five months), until the detachment of Plahotniuc regime and the adoption of a de-oligarchization program of Moldova.

Well, the dethronement occurred, but not the de-oligarchization. 

The Kremlin project for Moldova, whose author is D. Kozak, Vladimir Putin’s emissary in Moldova, had to go on and the Socialist together with the ACUM Bloc signed a second Cooperation Agreement for an unlimited period for this purpose. 

However, Kozak and Dodon needed a different government from that of Maia Sandu and a different Prime Minister. What they wanted was a formal, obedient and docile prime minister, “cooperative” in the sense that they would agree to Russia’s games and interests in Moldova and in the region. We must admit that, initially, Igor Dodon’s attempts to flirt (politically, obviously) with Maia Sandu succeeded: Dodon gained control of the Army, Security, State Guard, National Anti-Corruption Center, Reintegration and other fundamental state institutions.

Things went on as they went until Dodon attempted to take control of the government as well. Maia Sandu was asked to dismiss a few ACUM ministers, and to accept “newcomers” from the Socialist Party in their place, which, in fact, would have given Dodon the executive control vote. 

It may not be a matter of principle in the case of Germany, Austria, France or the United Kingdom, but not in Moldova’s case.  President Dodon drinks champagne in Tighina with Vadim Krasnoselsky, the leader of the unrecognized Transnistrian region, celebrating Russian national holidays. To let the government slip into Dodon’s hands, who already holds the Presidency and the Parliament, means to offer Moldova to Russia for nothing. 

Sandu opposed, with all due respect, and made it clear that she has the decisive voice at the government but it did not determine Dodon to give up. Unfortunately, in the last five months, Dodon had gone too far, had got too much from the ACUM Bloc. He had got used to asking and getting and lost the skill of compromise …

Maia Sandu’s attempts and those of the ACUM Bloc to be firmer and more vocal in their relationship with Dodon and their coalition partners came too late when Dodon only needed the government to control all powers in the state. As soon as Maia Sandu tried to take control over the identification of a Prosecutor General, the key issue in the fight against corruption, Dodon found a pretext for dismissal and did dismiss the Government. 

On November 13, Dodon discussed the perspective of the situation with all the parliamentary factions: the Socialist Party, the Action and Solidarity Party, the Truth and Dignity Platform Party, the Democratic Party and the Shor Party. The latter refused to participate in any form of governing and opted for early elections. 

The ACUM Bloc stood for the same composition of the government and for the same prime minister – Maia Sandu. The Democrats said they did not want early elections; they would vote for a minority government but wouldn’t participate in the formation of a majority coalition. The Socialists cheated, as did Dodon, asking those from the ACUM Bloc to accept the creation of a new parliamentary majority, a new government with a new prime minister, ready to share with the Socialist Party the responsibilities of government. 

After consulting the factions, Dodon declared that, in the event that no parliamentary party is ready to form a new parliamentary majority with the Socialists, the only solution to avoid the early elections remains the appointment of a technocratic government. Things have become clear: ACUM leaves office, the Democrats, as promised a week ago by Andrian Candu, take office again. 

However, there are several questions that bother us, regarding the Billion Case, the usurpation of state power case, the Chișinău International Airport privatization, the de-oligarchization process and the international prosecution of Vladimir Plahotniuc, fugitive oligarch and former leader of the Democratic Party.

Petru Grozavu,