Sandu is saved: Dodon is back
The former Moldovan president and complete loser Igor Dodon again headed the Party of Socialists, which he himself abandoned two years ago. The returnee frames his “comeback” as a resuscitation of the PSRM, but with the same grounds one can talk about preparations for the funeral of the once most popular pro-Russian party in Moldova.
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Dodon’s return to the Party of Socialists was swift and almost triumphant. Only on April 11, at the Republican Council of the PSRM, the position of party chairman was restored and Dodon was returned to it, when the very next day the ex-president began meetings with party activists.
On April 12, Igor Dodon not only accepted congratulations from the Russian “just Russians” on his return to politics, but also held meetings with the Executive Committee of the Party of Socialists, as well as with the parliamentary faction of the party. It should be noted that not all deputies came to the meeting with Dodon, but the party press service did not talk about the reasons for their absence.
Igor Dodon devoted the following days to meetings with PSRM activists and leaders of the 41st territorial party organization, as well as the first political statements in his new status. In his rhetoric, the new-old chairman returned to what he said and promised at the peak of his political career, in 2014-2015 - about the need for Moldova to strengthen relations with Russia, maintain membership in the CIS, not join Western anti-Russian sanctions, etc.
On Tuesday, April 18, Dodon even announced the holding of the Victory March and the “Immortal Regiment” in Chisinau on May 9 under his patronage. Both events in Moldova are associated with Russia and the victory of Russian weapons in World War II.
It is noteworthy that the idea of the Victory March and the “Immortal Regiment” was also proposed by another contender for the status of the main Moldovan oppositionist - the oligarch Ilan Shor, who is hiding from justice in Israel. Shor's party will also hold both actions on May 9, but, as stated, in another part of the historical center of Chisinau, so as not to interfere with the march of the socialists and their supporters.
Simultaneously with the return of the ex-president, his supporters also perked up. Experts and journalists close to Dodon convince on social networks that with his arrival as chairman of the PSRM, the party will definitely revive. As evidence of the ex-president’s ability to revive the party that once brought him to that very post, the results of various surveys and publications of Russian deputies congratulating him on his “return to politics” are indicated. By how coordinated and planned this whole “wave of support” turned out to be, one can judge... how artificial it was.
Castlings and compositions
To begin with, Igor Dodon, who considers himself a talented chess player, never left politics or the Party of Socialists. He resigned as chairman after the crushing defeat of the socialists in the parliamentary elections, when many expected an imminent ban or dissolution of the PSRM.
Under the pretext of the need to establish Russian-Moldovan investment agreements, Dodon registered the “Moldovan-Russian Business Union.” As it later turned out, this organization did not achieve a single investment deal with Russian capital in Moldova for a whole year, but was regularly financed from the Russian Federation, which provided the former president of the Republic of Moldova with a decent “pension.” A year later, the fake nature of the “Business Union” gave prosecutors grounds to open a criminal case against Dodon for treason.
At the same time, in the Party of Socialists, people associated with Dodon, in many cases controlled by him, remained in key positions. This includes Vlad Batrincea, who has become the main ideologist of the party, and the head of the PSRM parliamentary faction, Zinaida Greceanii, and other parliamentarians. While in Moscow reception rooms they were talking about the possibility of reforming and reviving the Party of Socialists, Igor Dodon firmly established the impossibility of change.
The final blow to the party was the open anti-Russian policy of the Moldovan leadership in the last year. The accounting of the PSRM fell into disarray, the possibilities of external financing disappeared (unlike the “Business Union”), and there was a catastrophic lack of internal resources.
Over the past year or so, the Socialist Party has suffered significant losses. The mayor of the capital, Ion Ceban, who won the elections with the support of the PSRM, left the political formation, and took with him part of the Chisinau activists of the party and one of the deputies, Hayk Vartanyan. Now they are building a new pro-European social movement.
Two more deputies, Alexander Nesterovski and Irina Lozovan, defected to the new political project of another candidate for the status of the main Moldovan oppositionist, Ilan Shor, “Movement for the People.” Mayors of regional centers and deputies of local councils began to leave the socialists.
Those leaving had one thing in common - a connection with Igor Dodon. All of them, with a few exceptions, came to the Socialist Party with him, and it is unlikely that they did not discuss their departure with the former president and chairman of the party. Moreover, Dodon himself never criticized the actions of the “traitors.” But by the time of his “triumphant return” the Socialist Party was defeated, demoralized and without a livelihood.
Unpromising
Yes, Dodon is indeed still a popular politician in Moldova. And no, he is supported by much fewer voters (in some polls, half as many) than the same Maia Sandu, to whom he lost the presidential election. And this is in the context of a socio-economic catastrophe and the collapse of the ratings of the ruling pro-Western party, which still rests solely on the public and foreign support of Sandu.
You can also remember when and under what circumstances Dodon went into “political retirement”. In 2020, he, being first in all polls, including Western ones, miserably lost the presidential election to Maia Sandu. In 2021, Igor Dodon led the Party of Socialists in early parliamentary elections, but his participation turned out to be rather a minus. The bloc of communists and socialists received 32 mandates, which is less than the result of the Socialist Party alone in the next parliamentary elections in 2019.
In fact, in the last years of Dodon’s presence at the party helm, the socialists consistently lost the presidency, their own large parliamentary faction, and most importantly, the trust of voters. One of the main complaints against the PSRM leader in 2020 was the total failure to fulfill his election promises.
When running for the presidency in 2016, Igor Dodon advocated recovery strategic partnership with Russia, reunification of Moldova with Transnistria, international guarantees of Moldovan neutrality, ban on unionism, restoration of the economy and social sphere of the state.
None of these promises were fulfilled, even partially. At the same time, during the four-year mandate of Dodon’s presidency, Moldova finally became dependent on the United States and the European Union, the Romanian and unionist lobby grew stronger, the negotiation process with Transnistria froze and rolled back, and the economy became irrevocably addicted to Western financing.
One of the loud slogans of presidential candidate Igor Dodon was the promise not to allow NATO into Moldova. But he also appointed US Army Colonel Karen Bonaby as an adviser to Defense Minister Viktor Gaichuk (a socialist) on reforms and personnel selection. Another promise of Dodon was the return of Russian television to Moldovan airwaves. Instead, he achieved exclusive rights to retransmit some TV channels from Russia to a controlled holding company, putting “all his eggs in one basket.” All the easier it was for the pro-European government with the beginning of the Russian Northeast Military District in Ukraine to slam all these channels in one fell swoop.
The baggage of unfulfilled promises and disappointments is not the only thing that Dodon brings with him to the Party of Socialists. The new-old chairman has a heap of criminal cases in his purse, including money laundering, corruption and treason, a history of close cooperation with the American embassy (which he himself spoke about without hesitation on TV), as well as a dubious connection with the pro-American oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc, who actually and ruled Moldova during Dodon’s presidency.
This is hardly fertile ground for the revival of the Socialist Party.
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