“The President's Revenge.” The Ruling Party Crossed the Line

The political reprisals against the Prosecutor General, apparently, brings an end to the attempts of the “good people” from the PAS to build a democratic rule of law state, rolling Moldova back to the times of the Democratic Party and Vlad Plahotniuc's rule.

Semyon ALBU Well, eventually, it happened – one of the last state fortresses that did not surrender to the PAS after the elections has fallen. Its “commander”, Prosecutor General Alexandr Stoianoglo, was handcuffed, escorted out of his office and put in jail. He is accused of abuse of office, excess of authority, corruption, and, God knows what else the head of the Prosecutor General's office might end up credited with. The detention has already caused indignation of the left opposition, Stoianoglo’s home Gagauzia, and even experts loyal to the authorities discreetly suggested that the situation “raises concerns”. Yesterday's dramatic events were a natural development of the acute response of the country's leadership to the unexpectedly bold statements of the head of the Prosecutor General's office, once again confirming that the authorities were literally “touched to a nerve”. The urgently convened council of prosecutors in an equally urgent manner considered PAS deputy Lilian Carp's complaint against Alexandr Stoianoglo, and the latter was not only denied to speak in his defense, but was not even allowed to the courtroom. That's right, it’s not like we have democracy and “pluralism” of opinions in our country! Around two o'clock in the afternoon, it was decided to start criminal proceedings against the Prosecutor General, and, here's a surprise, literally three hours later, the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Victor Furtuna concocted a criminal case on several articles at once. Such a rush was easily explained by the fact that another Stoianoglo’s briefing was announced to be scheduled for six in the evening, and they were still reeling from the previous one. So, in fact, the Prosecutor General was simply “silenced”: twenty minutes before the start of the press event, a natural “stage play” happened at the Prosecutor General's Office involving people in uniform from the presidential SIS, searches and arrests. Stoianoglo himself only had time to call what was happening “the president's vengeance”. So, let's recap: staged action at the Council of Prosecutors; a criminal case swiftly opened as if by a snap of fingers (by the way, it is clear whose fingers they are); late-evening prompt arrest in order to prevent new access to the media. According to the totality of the facts, a verdict can be made: yesterday the republic authorities committed an unceremonious political reprisal of an inconvenient prosecutor general. Moreover, they had long held the grudge against Stoianoglo. But if earlier they tried to give at least a semblance of legality to the process of removing the Prosecutor General from office, then his briefings, the past and the planned one, apparently exasperated the ruling party to a state that they decided to get rid of the disloyal civil servant, neglecting not only the law, but elementary rules of decency in principle as well. Yesterday, the ruling party finally crossed the dangerous line, in fact killing with its own hands the hopes for building a truly democratic state that would base on justice and lawfulness. Recall, this is what the presidential political formation promised us during the election campaign. However, when the law appeared to be “a little tight”, the smokescreen quickly fell down, for the first time revealing the real face of the ruling party. And it turned out that “good people” differ from their predecessors in no way. What happened the day before can additionally be considered a convincing demonstration of force and in parallel an act of intimidation for all political opponents of the president and her party. We have repeatedly written that as soon as they gain a full-fledged power, the flywheel of internal repression will inevitably be set in motion with the only aim to burn out the country's political field leaving only PAS and its ideological minions. It is very naive to expect that the Western partners in the face of the United States and the European Union will somehow prevent the lawlessness being done during that process – after all, they do not hinder the “green” team in Ukraine from doing the same. We have already been through this and know very well that Brussels, and especially Washington, are ready to forgive a lot to “their” regimes. As for Alexandr Stoianoglo, more than enough charges have already been filed against him to either “lock” him away for a long time or force to cooperate in hunting for a “bigger fish”. Summing up, we can say that the ruling party got drunk with power too quickly. This is a very alarming signal for PAS, since only two months after taking office, its current actions are primarily associated with the period of the DPM and Vlad Plahotniuc's rule. Not to mention the fact that many believe that the pro-Europeans have even surpassed their “mentor” in some aspects. And the point is not whether Stoianoglo is really guilty of the charges - it may well become that he is guilty. But we can say for sure that the procedure for his expulsion from the Prosecutor General's Office has nothing to do with either the law or true democracy.