Wow, this is amazing news and so wonderful to hear. It has taken years to get to this point and I am relieved to see that hard work is starting to pay off. Bravo to those within the anti-corruption group who have hung in there, taken punches and kept moving forward. Their hard work will benefit all of Moldova.
Really enjoy your writings on Moldova! I am also a Moldova RPCV ('94-'96) and it is so heartening to read about all the anti-corruption efforts underway in Moldova. And just like Nick Stevens Graphics wrote, this news brings a smile to my face too! Think it's time for me to upgrade to paid! All the best!
I love the circumspection in your wording: "At the time of writing, the major winners of this news cycle appear to be Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Veronica Dragalin and ALDE leader Arina Spataru"
For a country to transform itself from "corrupt" to "less corrupt" is a huge, long term undertaking. Watching it happen (for now) day-by-day in Moldova is fascinating and informative.
Here in the U.S. we've "finally" got a corrupt U.S. Senator who's not a Republican. I'm hoping that the prosecution (and hopefully resignation) of Senator Menendez will be an example both nationally and globally of how a political party can indeed police corruption among its own members. Ultimately this is the only way that people can learn to trust and sustain laws and processes that can keep corruption down to a dull roar.
Hi Connie, I fully agree that holding Senator Menendez to account will be a signal to the world about prosecuting corruption at high levels. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I think it will overshadowed by the manner in which the US holds a former president to account. Given the turmoil of the last years I think the US has lost much moral standing in the world, but not as much as many Americans fear. These trials will be very important to send the message that no one can be above the law.
At the same time, it is strange to see how cheaply a Senator can be bought. Shor appears to be moving more money monthly (or weekly) than Senator Menendez is accused of accumulating over multiple years. Given the massive size differences, and economic differences of the countries this only highlights what a pervasive issues Russian malign money is in Moldova.
What a great start to the weekend. I am happy to see the progress in the fight against corruption in Moldova and even though PAS has done a pretty good job while in power, I think the rise of other Western-oriented parties like ALDE is crucial to the continued success of Moldova.
My personal opinion - heavily influenced by where I am from, I should add - is that a single party should never have a majority in any parliament - a minority government or a coalition between several parties forces the leading party to negotiate and to take other perspectives into consideration instead of just pushing whichever legislation it wants or finds adequate.
I'd be very interested in here you are from / what led you to this pro-coalition position! Not that I disagree necessarily, but it is true that preferences for coalition or single party rule generally depend a lot on the political system itself.
For Moldova, I don't see the prospect for such a situation now. I agree that it is right to hope for a multi-party future in which there is a real battle of ideas, but the conditions are not right for that.
I previously wrote about this in an article exploring whether Moldova had "right" or "left" parties. It's a bit old but still interesting:
I'll have to update this article again soon because it gets to the core of Moldova's precarious political situation. The country does not have ideological parties as such. Most parties fall into the following basic categories:
1) Single Issue Parties - PAS and DA (predecessor to ALDE) fit this pattern. They ran to oppose Plahotniuc and fight corruption.
2) Parties of Personality / Power - Many parties are formed around a single person and are essentially a vehicle for getting them to power
3) Parties Operating on Behalf of a Foreign Government
This means that parties such as PAS are "big tent" parties when it comes to traditional political issues. PAS has social democrats, socialists, financial conservatives and more branches within it. This makes it hard to get things done but basically means the situation you like it within one party - the only difference is that these disagreements play out quietly rather then in public debate (not ideal).
Meanwhile, parties of power switch positions all the time and have no real ideology. A typical pro-EU party of power will basically criticize PAS all the time without any new ideas or initiatives. When asked what they would do better they say "be more professional / technocratic" or something like that. Basically, they want what PAS wants but claim they can do it better because their great leader is great.
Coalitions with such parties, or parties representing foreign interests, are nothing but a recipe for deadlock and maneuvering for a new election. You can imagine it playing out a lot like divided government in the US right now. One party is trying to govern while the other is trying to sabotage everything.
I'll need to write more on this soon because these internal political dynamics do not always come through in just the news coverage. As we get closer to local elections I'll consider some articles addressing the most important parties based on polls / support.
P.S> ALDE is *not* an important party and doesn't even register in polls. We'll see if that changes after this week.
Thank you for your reply. I agree with you on a lot of points, and I don't know enough about the current situation in Moldova to say whether a minority government is preferable right now. However, I do know that culture starts from the very top and that in order to build a society where different opinions are valued and listened to in families and in the workplace, this needs to happen in the halls of government too.
I'm from Denmark, where minority governments is the norm. We have 10+ political parties represented in parliament + representatives of political parties of the two autonomous regions Greenland and The Faroe Islands. Historically, some parties have occasionally managed to form a functioning bloc and steamroll the other side for a while, but eventually some core issue creates a crack in the bloc and we're back to negotiations and deals.
As a Dane, I look to countries with majority governments and see countries which become more and more divided over time. Countries with first-past-the-post voting systems seem particularly bad in this regard. To me, a political system where power seesaws back and forth across a divide breeds animosity. As you put it: "One party is trying to govern while the other is trying to sabotage everything."
It is my hope for the future that Moldova will develop a consensus style of government rather than the (in my view) inherently dysfunctional Anglo-Saxon seesaw style of government :-)
Thanks for the link to the article on political parties - definitely worth a read!
Lovely! So many snippets of positive anti-corruption news in this edition. It's not often that news articles bring a smile to my face.
Wow, this is amazing news and so wonderful to hear. It has taken years to get to this point and I am relieved to see that hard work is starting to pay off. Bravo to those within the anti-corruption group who have hung in there, taken punches and kept moving forward. Their hard work will benefit all of Moldova.
Really enjoy your writings on Moldova! I am also a Moldova RPCV ('94-'96) and it is so heartening to read about all the anti-corruption efforts underway in Moldova. And just like Nick Stevens Graphics wrote, this news brings a smile to my face too! Think it's time for me to upgrade to paid! All the best!
Great reporting.
I love the circumspection in your wording: "At the time of writing, the major winners of this news cycle appear to be Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Veronica Dragalin and ALDE leader Arina Spataru"
For a country to transform itself from "corrupt" to "less corrupt" is a huge, long term undertaking. Watching it happen (for now) day-by-day in Moldova is fascinating and informative.
Here in the U.S. we've "finally" got a corrupt U.S. Senator who's not a Republican. I'm hoping that the prosecution (and hopefully resignation) of Senator Menendez will be an example both nationally and globally of how a political party can indeed police corruption among its own members. Ultimately this is the only way that people can learn to trust and sustain laws and processes that can keep corruption down to a dull roar.
Hi Connie, I fully agree that holding Senator Menendez to account will be a signal to the world about prosecuting corruption at high levels. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I think it will overshadowed by the manner in which the US holds a former president to account. Given the turmoil of the last years I think the US has lost much moral standing in the world, but not as much as many Americans fear. These trials will be very important to send the message that no one can be above the law.
At the same time, it is strange to see how cheaply a Senator can be bought. Shor appears to be moving more money monthly (or weekly) than Senator Menendez is accused of accumulating over multiple years. Given the massive size differences, and economic differences of the countries this only highlights what a pervasive issues Russian malign money is in Moldova.
What a great start to the weekend. I am happy to see the progress in the fight against corruption in Moldova and even though PAS has done a pretty good job while in power, I think the rise of other Western-oriented parties like ALDE is crucial to the continued success of Moldova.
My personal opinion - heavily influenced by where I am from, I should add - is that a single party should never have a majority in any parliament - a minority government or a coalition between several parties forces the leading party to negotiate and to take other perspectives into consideration instead of just pushing whichever legislation it wants or finds adequate.
Hi Lasse,
I'd be very interested in here you are from / what led you to this pro-coalition position! Not that I disagree necessarily, but it is true that preferences for coalition or single party rule generally depend a lot on the political system itself.
For Moldova, I don't see the prospect for such a situation now. I agree that it is right to hope for a multi-party future in which there is a real battle of ideas, but the conditions are not right for that.
I previously wrote about this in an article exploring whether Moldova had "right" or "left" parties. It's a bit old but still interesting:
https://open.substack.com/pub/moldovamatters/p/explainer-does-moldova-have-left?r=h2agu&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I'll have to update this article again soon because it gets to the core of Moldova's precarious political situation. The country does not have ideological parties as such. Most parties fall into the following basic categories:
1) Single Issue Parties - PAS and DA (predecessor to ALDE) fit this pattern. They ran to oppose Plahotniuc and fight corruption.
2) Parties of Personality / Power - Many parties are formed around a single person and are essentially a vehicle for getting them to power
3) Parties Operating on Behalf of a Foreign Government
This means that parties such as PAS are "big tent" parties when it comes to traditional political issues. PAS has social democrats, socialists, financial conservatives and more branches within it. This makes it hard to get things done but basically means the situation you like it within one party - the only difference is that these disagreements play out quietly rather then in public debate (not ideal).
Meanwhile, parties of power switch positions all the time and have no real ideology. A typical pro-EU party of power will basically criticize PAS all the time without any new ideas or initiatives. When asked what they would do better they say "be more professional / technocratic" or something like that. Basically, they want what PAS wants but claim they can do it better because their great leader is great.
Coalitions with such parties, or parties representing foreign interests, are nothing but a recipe for deadlock and maneuvering for a new election. You can imagine it playing out a lot like divided government in the US right now. One party is trying to govern while the other is trying to sabotage everything.
I'll need to write more on this soon because these internal political dynamics do not always come through in just the news coverage. As we get closer to local elections I'll consider some articles addressing the most important parties based on polls / support.
P.S> ALDE is *not* an important party and doesn't even register in polls. We'll see if that changes after this week.
Hi David.
Thank you for your reply. I agree with you on a lot of points, and I don't know enough about the current situation in Moldova to say whether a minority government is preferable right now. However, I do know that culture starts from the very top and that in order to build a society where different opinions are valued and listened to in families and in the workplace, this needs to happen in the halls of government too.
I'm from Denmark, where minority governments is the norm. We have 10+ political parties represented in parliament + representatives of political parties of the two autonomous regions Greenland and The Faroe Islands. Historically, some parties have occasionally managed to form a functioning bloc and steamroll the other side for a while, but eventually some core issue creates a crack in the bloc and we're back to negotiations and deals.
As a Dane, I look to countries with majority governments and see countries which become more and more divided over time. Countries with first-past-the-post voting systems seem particularly bad in this regard. To me, a political system where power seesaws back and forth across a divide breeds animosity. As you put it: "One party is trying to govern while the other is trying to sabotage everything."
It is my hope for the future that Moldova will develop a consensus style of government rather than the (in my view) inherently dysfunctional Anglo-Saxon seesaw style of government :-)
Thanks for the link to the article on political parties - definitely worth a read!