Russia won in Gagauzia
The first round of elections for the head of the Gagauz autonomy in Moldova became a sensation. The little-known Evgenia Gutsul from the Shor party became the leader of the race, contrary to the forecasts and expectations of experts.
With her, Grigory Uzun from the Socialist Party also entered the second round with approximately the same result. In the second round, the Gagauz people will have to choose one of two openly pro-Russian candidates, while in Chisinau they are afraid of a repeat of the Gagauz elections throughout the country.
The Gagauz Central Election Commission announced the preliminary results of the first round late at night, and they immediately produced the effect of a bomb exploding. Before the elections, Evgenia Gutsul was a lawyer in Chisinau, and nothing connected her with Gagauzia except her place of birth and registration. In the elections, she was the only female candidate, and she openly nominated herself on behalf of a political party, while the other competitors preferred to call themselves independent.
The entire Hutsul election campaign, from the incredible promises of 500 million euros of investment and the construction of their own airport in the TikTok video, was, in fact, the election campaign of Shor and his party.
The leaders of the Shor party headed the election headquarters of Yevgenia Gutsul, took her to meetings with voters, organized, trained and paid agitators and supporters, and prepared her for voting day.
The role of the native of Etulia was quite simple - to play the candidate, and she coped with it perfectly. Ilan Shor’s team, as the results of the first round showed, did an excellent job of bringing the party candidate to the second round.
A virtual landing of Russian popular performers Philip Kirkorov, Stas Mikhailov and Nikolai Baskov, who called from Moscow to vote for “our friend Zhenechka and the party of our friend Ilan Shor,” also played a certain role in its success.
They could not personally come and campaign - as the Moldovan government stated, Kirkorov and other Russian cultural and political figures are on the “black list” and are prohibited from entering the country. However, statements via the Internet turned out to be enough for Evgenia Gutsul’s sensational result.
Its closest competitor, Grigory Uzun, cannot boast of full support for the political party.
The officially pro-Russian Party of Socialists and its leader Igor Dodon actively supported their protégé. Uzun’s team held several meetings with voters every day, and their main character and speaker was the ex-president. He became so familiar to local residents that many began to call him “Gagauz,” and Dodon himself admitted that even in his presidential elections he did not give his best.
Dodon and Uzun at a meeting with voters.
While Dodon and the Party of Socialists actively worked for one candidate, another part of the PSRM activists helped another, Victor Petrov. Socialist deputies Vasily Bolea and Alexander Sukhodolsky officially headed his headquarters, and the PSRM limited itself to only condemning them for their initiative.
Bolya and Sukhodolsky even organized a People’s Diplomacy Forum in Comrat in support of Petrov, to which they also invited the rais of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov. The head of the Russian region was not allowed into Moldova, but the scandal reminded everyone that Petrov is also connected with Russia (like Uzun and Shor).
This was not enough for Petrov to advance to the second round, but he collected 16,2% of the votes (or 9). Perhaps this support would have been enough for Uzun to win in the first round, but confusion and vacillation in the Socialist Party prevented this, and may still have an impact in the second round.
Another important result of yesterday’s vote was the catastrophic failure of Dmitry Croitor, the Moldovan ambassador to Turkey, who moved to the bashkan with the simultaneous support of the current bashkan Irina Vlah, the central authorities from Chisinau (who sent him presidential adviser Sandu) and the Turkish embassy in Moldova.
Despite the combined power of all the forces involved, funding, administrative resources and support from the authorities, Kroitor received a little more than 10% of the votes. Kroitor is known in the autonomy as a Euro-liberal, an intellectual and a traitor - in 2002 he fled the region, exchanging the post of Bashkan of Gagauzia and a team of supporters for the post of ambassador to Switzerland.
During the election campaign, Kroitor’s competitors did not recall this nuance from his biography, but voters remembered it during the vote. Chisinau’s calculation was that such a pliable bashkan as Dmitry Kroytor would not resist the decisions of the central authorities, which would further limit the powers and capabilities of Gagauzia within Moldova.
We are talking about such a key factor as the right of the autonomy authorities to influence the decisions of the central authorities in the field of domestic and foreign policy, over which the Maia Sandu administration would like to retain a monopoly. The Bashkan of Gagauzia by status is a member of the government of the Republic of Moldova, with a very wide range of powers and capabilities.
Now, after the failure of Chisinau’s plans to “resolve the Gagauz issue,” the Moldovan pro-Western government is guaranteed to have a pro-Russian boss.
If the previous head of the autonomy, Irina Vlah, patiently endured accusations and insults against the Gagauz people from Prime Minister Dorin Recan and other members of the cabinet, now the situation may change radically.
The government of Moldova can become a platform for a politician from Gagauzia, who will use it to speak in support of Russia and the eastern vector. This will destroy the illusion of pro-European unanimity in Moldovan society, which was so carefully portrayed in Chisinau.
“If a strong, pro-European alternative to the current government is not created, the result in Gagauzia risks being repeated at the republican level in the next elections,” warns ex-Prime Minister Vlad Filat.
According to him, congratulations and encouragement from Western politicians are, of course, good, but Moldovan citizens vote, and, judging by the results in Gagauzia, they are not very receptive to these praises from Brussels and Washington.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.