Weekly Roundup

July 24 - July 30

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We have a rather short roundup this week since the process of organizing parliament and forming a government have been going on more or less quietly and out of the public eye. Once this process is done we’ll come back with a Deep Dive looking at the country’s new leadership and trying to understand what the next steps will be for this governing majority. 

Political Updates - Parliament sits and Begins Work

Late last week the Constitutional Court officially recognized the results of the July 11 parliamentary elections. This cleared the way for the new Parliament to seat itself and begin work. This first meeting took place on Monday July 26th and opened with a speech from President Sandu. The President spoke of a “real revolution” in Moldova that starts from parliament. She said that MPs must lead by example and that it fell to them to do the hard work of reforming institutions to make them work for the people. Specifically, the President highlighted a new “zero tolerance” policy for corruption at all levels of the state starting with parliament and going down to the lowest inspector. The speech was well received by the PAS faction and on social media, but was immediately followed by a surprise. PAS representatives proposed and immediately voted to  recess and reconvene in 3 days. Past statements by both the President and party leaders implied that this first seating would see votes on parliamentary leadership, including the speaker and vice speakers, as well as the new government. Pushing this vote by 3 days caused political scientists to speculate whether or not PAS was ready with its slate of candidates, or if there were internal divisions that were causing delays. 

Notable absences at this first meeting of the new parliament were Mr. Dodon and Mr. Shor. Mr. Dodon did not explain why he chose not to come to work on the first day, but it was later reported that he vacationed in Turkey. Mr. Shor has not shown up to a meeting of parliament since he fled with Plahotniuc in 2019. 

Parliamentary Leadership is Chosen

On Thursday, parliament reconvened and chose Igor Grosu as the speaker of parliament. Each party also chose it’s “faction leaders” with PAS selecting Mihai Popshoi. A faction leader is somewhat like a majority / minority leader combined with the majority / minority whip positions. With a large and diverse parliamentary block to keep together Mr. Popshoi likely has one of the harder jobs in this new legislature. Interestingly, the Party of Socialists did not choose Mr. Dodon to lead their faction. In response to questions from journalists Mr. Dodon said that he has had many positions in the past and that it is “enough for him.” He remains leader of the party but officially is just a simple MP. 

Selecting a Government

In his capacity as faction leader of PAS, Mihai Popshoi consulted the members of parliament and nominated Natalia Gavrilita as the party’s pick for prime minister. After officially consulting with all factions, President Sandu signed a decree nominating Gavrilita to the post of prime minister. At the time, the incoming prime minister will form her proposed cabinet of ministers and prepare a government platform - likely based on the PAS election platform. Once this is done she will present the cabinet and platform to parliament for a vote of confidence. This could happen early next week.

In the government formation process, there are a lot of interesting figures to watch for in the ministries. The ministers of Economy, Finance and Justice will play a huge role in shaping and implementing the PAS agenda. We will do a Deep Dive on the new ministers and leaders in Parliament once they are all selected and confirmed. In the meantime, if you want a refresher on just how the Moldovan Government works, check out our past Explainer from Moldova Matters: “How does the Moldovan Government Work?”

The US Embassy gets the Republican Stadium

This week the Constitutional Court issued a final ruling that the law agreeing to sell the Republican Stadium in Chisinau to the US Embassy as a site for a new embassy building was constitutional. As we discussed last week, this is a very controversial move that was made by the Plahotniuc government but is opposed by large sections of civil society. Now that the legal process has finished in the courts, the government will have to assess the value of the land and set a purchase price. The US Embassy issued a press release praising the decision and noting that they have negotiated for over 10 years transparently to buy this land. They say that the land will be bought at market price from an independent assessor and that construction will create many jobs. Furthermore, in the design they intend to keep elements of the old stadium intact in a public park. 

COVID Update

Delta has arrived in Moldova. Of 15 samples sent to a lab in Germany, 12 were confirmed to be the Delta variant. This strongly implies that Delta is here and circulating in community spread, not simply imported cases. Cases are currently averaging 108 infections per day and 2.5 deaths. This is a slight uptick and represents only the second week since May of over 100 cases / day. 

In response to this news, and their own models for infection, the city governments of both Chisinau and Balti declared a move towards “yellow zone” restrictions. In Chisinau, little has changed with masks required indoors and outdoors when in close proximity. Restrictions on restaurants and business remain as before. In Balti, the yellow zone creates major restrictions and severely limits store capacity. 

The interim government has continued to stress the importance of employers making 70% of their employees get vaccinated by September 1st. But the People’s Ombudsman office for human rights has stated that it is not legal for an employer to fire an employee for not getting vaccinated. Untangling this knot of restrictions and mandates will be very important for the new government to remove uncertainty from the mandate process and clarify what they expect from companies. 

As of this week over 1 million doses have been administered in Moldova with just short of 500,000 people having a full 2 dose vaccination regime. While this is impressive, it only represents around 19% of the population with at least one dose. Supply continues to exceed demand and Moldova received the first 30,000 doses of the 700,000 it has purchased from Pfizer. With supply secured it is now up to everyone to go and get the shot. 

Crime and Corruption

The Judge and the Penthouse

This week, investigative outlet ZdG reported on the illicit wealth of a Chisinau judge. The Judge, Tatiana Avasiloaie, lives in a penthouse apartment with a floorspace of over 150 sq meters. The value of the apartment is at least 120,000 euros but was never declared on her public wealth declaration forms. ZdG confronted the judge outside the apartment building and asked why she had not declared her home. She responded that she doesn’t live there but only comes and checks the water and gas for a friend. The journalist reported that they had staked out her care and knew she was there every day and spent most nights. They also showed her that the apartment was registered to a family friend in Transnistria who also could not possibly have the means to afford it. Simultaneously, journalists interviewed the judge’s father at the house she supposedly shares with her parents. He told them that in fact they did rent the apartment from a friend in Transnistria and his daughter lives there. This discrepancy in stories, and the fact that the apartment was never reported, puts the judge at risk of prosecution and losing the property to the state. Various bodies are now investigating. 

This will be an interesting test case for the new government’s ability to handle corruption in the judiciary. Stories such as this are not uncommon, but consequences for corrupt judges are highly uncommon in Moldova. It will be interesting to see what the authorities do with investigative reporting such as this going forward. 

PACE Party Leader Flees Prosecution

PACE party leader Gheorghe Cavcaliuc (known for the coffin stunt during the election) has left Moldova and informed the prosecutors that are seeking him that he believes their case to be politically motivated. The case in question is related to him and other party activists dousing a local official in green liquid during the election campaign. While Cavcaliuc claims he simply left for a job abroad and he did not flee, he also mentioned that he did not intend to come back and face the charges against him. Following the departure of Mr. Platon and PAS party representatives telling corrupt officials to “leave now” it seems we have a trend towards people taking their advice. 

Ending on a High Note!

PAS deputy Oazu Nantoi is doing fine after a parachuting accident. The 73 year old MP was injured in Bulgaria during a competition and needed to be evacuated to Chisinau by helicopter. He is not seriously injured and has spoken to the press assuring that he will make a full recovery. Mr. Nantoi is a competitive skydiver and his accident in Bulgaria was rather frightening. His chute failed to open on a low altitude precision landing jump giving him little time to deploy the backup. At 73, his injury and evacuation back to Moldova via helicopter had many people quite worried. Happily, he is doing just fine and has set an example for grandads everywhere on just how to scare your grandkids to death while also being the coolest grandad around. 

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