Moldova was left without a government – what will happen next?
On December 23, political journalists expected mainly two things to happen. At eleven in the morning - briefing by outgoing President Igor Dodon (last day in office). At three days there will be an emergency meeting of parliament dedicated to a vote of no confidence in the government of Ion Chicu. The approval of which no one seriously expected - the opposition still did not have enough votes to “overthrow” the prime minister.
Instead of two events, one thing happened, but it was unexpected. Dodon came to the briefing along with his comrades - Speaker of Parliament Zinaida Greceanii and the same Prime Minister Ion Chicu. The latter announced his resignation. According to the law, other ministers automatically resign along with the prime minister.
Kiku finds freedom
Ion Chicu thanked his government colleagues and parliamentarians for their work; he assessed the work in difficult times (you can’t argue with that) positively, and explained his resignation as “launching the mechanism for announcing early parliamentary elections.” Which should be announced if the new prime minister is not approved - which is quite likely.
However, Kiku’s explanations fall more on the agenda of the Socialist Party, but not on Kiku himself. The last thing in the world that the departed prime minister wanted to do was to participate in political games.
Kiku's resignation is something that sources have been expecting for a long time, but not now. There are people whose pride drives them into politics, and there are those whose pride manifests itself in a complete rejection of politics as something petty. The technocrat prime minister, who was called a “workaholic” behind his back, is just one of those.
According to sources, he had already wanted to resign several times - and especially did not want to travel around the country during the election campaign. Dodon and Greceanii managed to convince their longtime colleague (they had been friends since the 2000s) not to jeopardize the team by leaving a prominent person right before the elections.
Now Kiku is free, but the socialists lose much more with his departure. Yes, Ion Kiku could be harsh and said a lot of things that voters didn’t like. But behind this shell, voters unexpectedly saw what they had not noticed in Dodon and Greceanii - a person who says what he really thinks and what he considers correct. Without Kiku, preparing for early matches will be much more difficult...
Dodon shifts responsibility
If Zinaida Greceanii did not say anything special during the briefing (basically, she also thanked everyone, continuing for Chika), then Dodon had to make political statements. After all, he is leaving the presidential post and is preparing to return to the post of chairman of the Socialist Party (the congress is scheduled for December 30).
The main idea that Dodon spoke about at the briefing is the idea that Maia Sandu will now be responsible for everything. Right from tomorrow, right after the inauguration.
Dodon, in fact, promoted this idea before, on all TV shows and interviews. And his associates on the network completely brought it to the point of absurdity. Socialist MP Bogdan Tirdea, for example, linked the increase in fuel prices (which occurred shortly after the second round) with the fact that Moldova has a new president. Since Sandu not only did not control the parliament and the government, but was not even approved by the Constitutional Court, the deputy and his party were immediately ridiculed. Sometimes no propaganda is better than this.
In general, attempts to “put everything on Sanda” look dubious. A pro-Dodon majority has actually been formed in parliament. The new government will not be approved, and people from the current team will remain acting in the ministries. Control bodies (the anti-corruption center, intelligence services, the Accounts Chamber, audiovisual, etc.) also remain in the hands of the socialists.
It turns out that the socialists and their allies will be in charge, and Sandu will be in charge? Even if her opponents govern deliberately poorly until the elections? Mrs. Sandu, of course, is not a pound of raisins, but she certainly did not deserve this.
Mr. Dodon is worth reminding: Moldovans love to feel sorry for the “unjustly offended” and support them with their votes in elections - even when it comes to people they dislike.
Sandu loses initiative
What Maia Sandu can only blame herself for is the fact that she completely conceded the main point of her own agenda to Dodon and the socialists. She ran for the presidency, promising to achieve early parliamentary elections. And she didn’t do anything for it.
She leaked the protest movement. She missed opportunity to unite all opposition. She again divided everyone into “correct” Westerners and “insufficiently elitist” leftists. She looked calmly how her comrades are trying to cut the budget together with their sworn enemies.
And - here is the reckoning. The Socialists made their move first. Now the electorate sees that it was they who really launched the procedure for achieving early elections. But not Sandu, no matter how much she now boasts that she “was able to achieve everything.”
But one thing we can definitely agree with when President Dodon spoke for the last time today is his phrase “Everything is just beginning!” What did he mean – a new round of his political career, or the beginning of a campaign for the elections of a new parliament? One thing is clear - everything is really just beginning.
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