Expert: Maia Sandu Scores a Major Victory in a Conflict with Parliament

Sergiu CEBAN The struggle between the president and parliament have reached a turning point. Whatever further developments, Maia Sandu is guaranteed to win a major political trophy - either her own government or the much-desired early elections Today marks a turning point for the protracted internal political crisis in Moldova. It was rich in events that outline the trajectory towards any kind of solution that will help the Moldovan politicians to switch from fighting amongst themselves and focus on countering the next wave of the pandemic and the mutating coronavirus infection. Needless to say, the Constitutional Court's decision draws first and foremost attention, since it has offered the chance to the sitting parliament to "try its luck" again and elect a new composition of the Moldovan government. Today, the high concentration of interdependent factors is such that the majority of deputies who want to avoid early elections need to speed up as much as possible in making a decision as to the prospects of the Igor Grosu-led Cabinet of Ministers. The way out of the seemingly hopeless situation was possible due to the last week's multi-step combination, some elements of which were publicly displayed. This is, first of all, Mariana Durlesteanu's mysterious self-retreat, Igor Grosu's nomination as a candidate for prime minister and the next day's emergency visit of Prosecutor General Alexandru Stoianoglo to parliament demanding that immunity be lifted from the Shor faction MPs Denis Ulanov and Petru Jardan. The prosecutor's attack on Ilan Shor's closest associates is an alarming signal for him, testifying, for example, that Igor Dodon has lost influence over the Prosecutor General. Recall, the latter was appointed to his post in the fall of 2019 as a PSRM -DPM compromise figure to ensure protection for the socialists, democrats, Shor and other persons involved in the Kroll report, which Mariana Durlesteanu allusively mentioned in her recent posts on social media. In the coming days, the Gordian knot will probably be finally cut, when it becomes clear whether Igor Grosu will receive the required 51 votes of deputies or whether the lack of political support from the parliament will lead to early elections of Moldova's legislative body in a few months. The president and the PAS party have gained a great advantage and are losing almost nothing, even if Grosu is eventually confirmed in his new position. In this case, it will be possible to start personnel purges in the governing institutions and the overall system reorganization. With the continuing risk of a quick resignation of the government, there is always an opportunity to point out that the parliamentary oligarchy has impeded the honest intentions of the "good people" of Maia Sandu, who, by the way, herself went a similar path in 2019, which subsequently did not prevent her from successfully winning the presidential election. March 22 will definitely be remembered as a gloomy date for the Socialist Party when its political and electoral prospects were significantly weakened - after all, any subsequent decisions and steps made by PSRM from now on will only worsen the political formation's position. Igor Dodon has expectedly got hard-pressed and is now forced to start early intra-party consultations in order to eliminate any minimum chance for conditions necessary to provoke early elections. The only salvation during the upcoming stay in deaf opposition is apparently the scenario in which Igor Dodon and the Socialist Party will try with Moscow's aid to launch a large-scale vaccination of the population with the Russian "Sputnik V". An effective collective immunization will make it possible to join the subsequent election campaign as a key political force that saved the citizens of Moldova from a pandemic. The main result of the three-month political confrontation is that Maia Sandu has after all outplayed the parliament, compellingly challenging the weakening post-Soviet Moldovan elite and the state-corporate system formed in the last three decades. Not without the Western partners' support is Maia Sandu gradually turning into a moral ideal and the main hope for the majority of Moldovan citizens and the country, which, as envisioned by the authors, will open a new page in its history after marking its 30th anniversary in August this year. Meanwhile, some experts keep thinking that a complex internal political confrontation was settled with the help of a very powerful external factor, since with all the resonance and impetus of events, all the necessary conditions for reaching a compromise formula were evolving in a rather consistent way in recent weeks: Sandu was granted the government, Dodon - postponement of parliamentary elections. Despite all the "agony"  in which the current consensus was born, there is a feeling that another scenario of external forces has been implemented in Moldova, since, as is known, Moldovan politicians cannot arrange any matters on their own.