Foreign Minister Popescu Resigns, Two New Ministers Appointed
Quick Hit: January 25, 2024
Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu Resigns
On January 24th Minister Popescu announced his resignation. Nicu Popescu served as Foreign Minister since the creation of the government of former Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita following PAS’ electoral victory in 2021 and continued in the government of Prime Minister Dorin Recean. Announcing his resignation he stated the following:
“Today, with the firm confidence that, together with President Maia Sandu and the government team, over these two and a half years we have managed to achieve several fundamental goals for our country, I want to announce that I have decided to resign from the post of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Foreign Affairs of Moldova. In the governments led by Dorin Recean and Natalia Gavrilita, and with the support of the parliamentary majority, we managed to put Moldova on the path to joining the European Union. Just two or three years ago, these goals seemed unthinkable, but through joint efforts we managed to bring Moldova out of the most shameful period in the history of our diplomacy, a period when diplomacy was in the service of the oligarchs,”
Praise for the former minister has poured in following his resignation with multiple stories being written about his nearly unprecedented accomplishments while in office. These began when Moldova applied for EU candidate status in March 2022 and then received candidate status in June 2022. He was instrumental in organizing and participating in the EPC summit in June 2023 and in the diplomatic frenzy leading up to the EU’s decision to begin accession negotiations with Moldova in last December. In this time he also managed Moldova’s small part in the crisis and then war in Gaza by leading efforts that successfully evacuated all Moldovan citizens from Gaza who requested support with the support of Moldova’s international partners and the government of Egypt.
Following the announcement, Nicu Popescu put out another statement clarifying the reasons for his resignation and future plans saying:
“To avoid misinterpretation of the reason for my resignation, I emphasize that I have successfully achieved the foreign policy goals set together with President Maia Sandu at the beginning of this mandate, and now I need a break. At the same time, I assure you that I will continue to contribute to the efforts of President Maia Sandu and the government team aimed at Moldova’s accession to the European Union, ensuring peace, stability and tranquility in our country,”
President Sandu presented Moldova’s highest state honor, the Order of the Republic, to the departing foreign minister calling him “probably the most outstanding foreign minister in the history of Moldova.” She also expressed confidence that Mr. Popescu will continue to support the government in negotiations with the European Union outside of this office.
Context - What happens next?
Moldova has a number of ministries with long and unwieldy names which we have a tendency to shorten on Moldova Matters for convenience. We’ve referred to “Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu,” but his full title was always “Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration.” This is important to understand the government’s next moves and the timing of his resignation. In our “2024 - The Year Ahead” article from earlier this month we looked at statements of the Prime Minister saying that a person with the rank of deputy prime minister would be the one leading negotiations with the EU. At the time, the only real possibility was Nicu Popescu or a new appointee.
In theory, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration always wore 2 hats but had one job. European Integration was, and is, the top foreign policy goal of the Republic of Moldova so it made sense to organize it into one office. Now, with accession negotiations beginning, European Integration is no longer an exclusively foreign policy objective but instead will become a whole of government effort. Given that change, the Prime Minister has chosen to split this ministry up… kind of.
Two New Ministers
Following the announcement that Nicu Popescu was stepping down, the Prime Minister announced that he was appointing 2 new ministers. Mihai Popsoi will become new Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration and Cristina Gerasimov will become a new "minister without portfolio" tasked with managing Moldova’s accession negotiations with the EU.
Mihai Popsoi currently serves as the vice-president of parliament, a role that will now be filled by PAS MP Doina German. Popsoi has served in parliament since 2019 and before that served in various international organizations including the NATO Center in Moldova and as a political analyst at the US Embassy.
Cristina Gerasimov is currently serving as a State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign affairs. Previously she served as the Secretary General of the Presidential Administration and as a foreign policy advisor to President Sandu.
What is a minister without portfolio?
Basically a minister without portfolio is someone who has the rank of minister within the government but does not control her own ministry apparatus. Explaining the move, government spokesmen Danial Voda stated:
“A minister without portfolio means that there is an area for which the minister is responsible, but without a central apparatus. A new ministry will not be created, but Cristina Gerasimov will be a member of the government heading the Bureau of European Integration,”
This is not unprecedented in Moldova and Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Oleg Serebryan is also serving as a minister without portfolio.
Why two ministers?
**Correction: the original version of this article erroneously said “Minister Popescu will manage foreign policy and elements of European integration” in the paragraph below. This was a typo and has been corrected to Minister Popsoi.
Right now we don’t know for sure how this structure will work day to day and the exact delineation of responsibilities. But here’s what we can guess at - as mentioned above, foreign policy and European integration are now more or less in separate but parallel tracks. Minister Popsoi will manage foreign policy and elements of European integration that fall in that sphere. Minister Gerasimov will most likely coordinate the domestic efforts and directly lead negotiations with the EU - something that is a combination of technical work and diplomatic efforts.
Some commentators have suggested that this isn’t the most efficient mechanism and that a formal splitting of the ministry, or the creation of a new ministry would be better. This narrative is based on the idea that having 2 ministers within one ministry might not be efficient.
This might not be the idea though. The US government often appoints positions that are colloquially called “Czars” in order to create a high level rank that is focused on one specific issue. A Czar in the American context is often not unlike a minister without portfolio as their job is not to manage a department or ministry but to act as a coordinator between all areas of government to accomplish a single goal. European integration is going to require massive effort from every ministry - Economy, Finance, Internal Affairs, Environment, etc. It appears that Minister Gerasimov’s role will be to be the lead in a government wide effort to coordinate negotiations.
Now, for fairly obvious cultural reasons we won’t likely be calling her Czar Gerasimov anytime soon. But the new minister’s success or failure will likely hinge on her ability to play this coordinating role as Moldova embarks on the country’s greatest policy and regulatory transformation since independence.
We’ll be closely following how this develops in the weeks and months to come.