Opinion: Elections in Balti Turned into a Slap in the Face of the Ruling Party

The majority party suffered a crushing defeat in the elections of the northern capital mayor: the residents of Balti preferred Renato Usatii’s former colleague involved in Kroll reports, Marina Tauber, to the ruling party’s candidate

Semeon ALBU, RTA: The black streak for our ruling elite continues. “Never without a crisis” – this could be the new motto of the pro-presidential party. Moreover, thanks to their “good governance”, even seemingly resolved problems are surfacing again. Yesterday, Gazprom’s ultimatum about the imminent suspension of gas supplies burst out of the blue. And for well-founded reasons: it turned out that our side simply does not pay for Russian blue fuel. We don’t even know what to think anymore: whether it’s the very blatant incompetence of the “good people”, or the desire to constantly test Moscow’s patience that defies logic. But gas is just one of the “failure stories” that have already stuck to PAS during their short governance. Disappointing results of opinion polls are the icing on the cake and a strong assessment: the population is dissatisfied and even the impeccable Maia Sandu has lost her title of the “bestest” Moldovan politician in favor of the mayor-oppositionist Ion Ceban. Popsoi and Сo. can accuse these studies of bias all they like, but they were conducted not by associations affiliated with the left wing but by a completely respectable IMAS. The protest is in the air, and this is just the beginning: after all, utility payments under new “pro-European” tariffs are coming along with pension reform with an increase in the retirement age. And even our anemic opposition will obviously not miss such occasions to teach the authorities a lesson. Anyway, if someone in the ruling party was about to rest on the laurels after two consecutive victorious campaigns, that’s clearly not the case. There is a lot of work to be done, including in areas where a fairly young PAS has yet to expand its networks of influence and supporters. And the other day, there was the first good opportunity for this: elections in Balti, the second largest city of the republic, which, apparently, finally lost its brilliant mayor Renato Usatii. The northern capital initially seemed like a tough nut to crack for the rightists, but the party leadership, inspired by the results of the national elections, felt that now they could handle any task. In addition, we were encouraged by the results of voting in Balti in the early parliamentary elections this year, where PAS scored more than 27%. That’s more than, say, the Renato Usatii block did. Boris Marcoci, the chairman of the PAS local territorial organization, a prominent city businessman and a former municipal councilor, was appointed the official candidate to participate in the next election battle. The plan was simple – to use the combination of national success, the candidate’s fame and strong support from the center to crush opponents in the first round, once again demonstrating and consolidating their absolute superiority in the political arena. To that end, they invested properly in the campaign: they gave a sizeable budget, detached an administrative resource, cleared the way of other pro-European candidates - yes, I’m talking about Arina Spatara, and even promised all kinds of benefits from the center, including the legally fixed status of the northern capital of Moldova. But none of that worked. The Balti elections outcome is a sensitive slap in the face of the ruling party and acknowledgement by the population that its activities are disastrous. The PAS representative not only did not win the election, but also failed to make it to the second round getting almost the same results as the Socialist nominee. It turns out that people preferred to vote for the figure involved in the Kroll reports, Marina Tauber, a member of the party named after the person who is the main perpetrator of the theft of a billion, rather than trust the candidate from the ruling party. It is obvious that the number of citizens who are ready to listen to fairy tales about European integration, reforms, and the mythical aid of development partners with their mouths agape is declining. People are completely tired of poverty and lack of prospects, and no longer believe even the most beautiful words and “the best people”, do not believe that these “good people” can change the game rules, give up stealing and work for the benefit of the population. Therefore, their choice is as pragmatic as possible. Yes, everyone knows that the top of the Shor party is involved in the bank theft – but even this fact does not make them worse in the eyes of the population who regards all Moldovan politicians are equally bad and thievish. Yet, Ilan Shor has a real success story in Orhei, albeit implemented with the “wicked” money, which, whatever one may say, is much more visible than a similar European integration one. The elections in Balti should somewhat ground the PAS who are confident that the victories of 2020-2021 were achieved through the genius and incredible attractiveness of their ideas. Of course not – it was a protest vote in which people simply opted for change. The same thing happened this past Sunday. Now they are trying to convince us that no one in principle expected success and that in general the Balti elections are not particularly important, but this is nothing but lie. They did have expectations, as well as hopes, otherwise they would not have invested in this campaign right from the outset. However, nobody could think that disappointment with the pro-European team would come so quickly. Most likely, PAS still has some degree of trust, but we were able to see what their result might be if a new nation-wide electoral round was held right now. The ruling party was given a serious cause to reflect why people in Balti voted not for “good people” but for a candidate from the party which has left a lingering corruption trail. As well as how soon the desire to replace those who have disappointed them with the country’s new “rescue team” will become so critical that it will threaten the monolithic rule of the party in power.