A talk with the ACUM parliamentarian Dumitru Alaiba
The Moldovan parliamentary election of February 24, 2019 led to a silent revolution in the tiny Eastern European state with less than 3 million inhabitants; roughly one million Moldovans live abroad. They contribute 20% to Moldova’s GDP (some 1 billion Euro a year).
Voter turnout was 49.24% (roughly 8% lower than in 2014). The pro-Russian Socialists of President Igor Dodon (*1975), now led by the former Communist and former prime minister Zinaida Greceanîi (*1956), finished first with 35 seats in the unicameral parliament with a total of 101 members. Second came the formally pro-EU Democratic Party of Moldova, led by the corrupt oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc (*1966). The Democratic Party won 30 seats. The really pro-EU, anti-corruption and reformist ACUM party alliance finished third with 26 seats. ACUM is led by Maia Sandu (*1972) and Andrei Năstase (*1975).
Maia Sandu studied in Moldova and at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Massachusetts. Subsequently, she worked as adviser to the Executive Director at the World Bank in Washington, D.C.. From July 2012 until July 2015, she served as Minister of Education in Moldova, where she fought corruption at schools and universities.
In the 2019 Moldovan parliamentary election, the Șor Party of the shady businessman Ilan Shor (*1987) finished fourth with 7 seats. Ilan Shor is considered one of the key figures in the 2014-15 bank fraud scandal. It involved three Moldovan banks and the disappearance of $1 billion; a gigantic sum in a country as poor as Moldova.
The Socialists and ACUM agreed to form a coalition government. On June 8, 2019 ACUM’s Maia Sandu was elected prime minister, Andrei Năstase became minister of Internal Affairs. The oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc fled abroad.
In the Moldovan parliament in Chisinau in June 2019, I had the chance to talk to the ACUM parliamentarian Dumitru Alaiba. He told me that both Maia Sandu and Andrei Nastase stand for the fight against corruption and against monopolies. The political, economic and legal systems need a clean up. In July, a majority of the parliament ousted the General Prosecutor of the Republic of Moldova (he technically resigned, but in reality was forced to leave by parliament), Eduard Harunjen, considered to be a key figure in the corrupt system.
Dumitru Alaiba told me that, in too many sectors, the economy of Moldova lacks competition. In addition, there are too many inefficient state enterprises. He said that the sector of small and medium enterprises (SME) in the European Union accounts for roughly 60% of the economy, whereas in Moldova, that number is only 25%. He told me about some economic success stories, notably the sector of automotive products which accounts for roughly 10% of all Moldovan exports. The automotive sector development was unpredicted. It started with one company producing labor intensive cabels for BMW and Mercedes in the nothern part of Moldova.
ACUM’s coalition with the pro-Russian Socialists of President Dodon is a marriage of convenience. Although the minority partner with only 26 seats, well behind the Socialists with 35 seats, ACUM insisted on Maia Sandu becoming the new prime minister of Moldova. With the Socialists as a partner, ACUM may have to struggle to push through the economically liberal, free-market reforms the country needs and the pro-EU, pro-Western course. At the same time, ACUM wants to overcome the political and ethnical polarization.
In addition, ACUM vowed to fight for an independent justice, a better educational system, an effective public administration, a modern infrastructure, a consistent foreign policy, the involvement of the Moldovan diaspora in the country’s development, etc. An ambitious program.
It is strange that both the United States AND Russia supported this new coalition government of the Socialists and ACUM. One could read that the Sandu-Dodon alliance is the result of the fact that Plahotniuc and Dodon could not reach an agreement to form a government. My educated guess is that the Russian President Putin thought that, because of the corruption scandals, Plahotniuc was toast anyway and that it was best to have a foot in the new government thanks to the Socialists. President Dodon looks like a typical Moldovan politician: an opportunistic populist who is no longer dreaming of Socialism. Like the Socialist party leader, he is a “friend” of Putin.
Regarding the 2014 scandal involving three banks “losing” $1 billion, Dumitru Alaiba told me that there was a “coordinated inaction” by the three key actors under control of the corrupt, pseudo pro-European Democratic Party: the National Bank, the National Anti-Corruption Center (NAC) and persecutor’s office (Eduard Harunjen, mentioned above).
We can only hope that Premier Maia Sandu and her allies will be successful with their reforms in Moldova.
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Maia Sandu at the summit of the European People’s Party (EPP) in June 2017 (a year before she took office as prime minister of Moldova). Photo: European People’s Party on Flickr.
Article added on July 29, 2019 at 10:03 Polish time. Last update at 10:43.
