Opinion: PAS Is Nearing Political Bankruptcy

Chaotic and ill-conceived steps of the ruling party in domestic and foreign policy is a consequence of the rapid control loss both within the country and within its own ranks

Semyon ALBU, RTA: The ruling party has never been considered intelligent or clever, but the number of dumbest decisions it makes within Moldovan domestic and foreign policy has become excessive even by its paltry standards. Now the “yellows” with irrepressible eagerness generate an endless sequence of ill-conceived, incompetent actions that are irrational and destructive for the country and its unimpressive prospects. The mass expulsion of diplomats from the Russian embassy in Moldova undoubtedly takes the top prize in the category of “political idiocy”. In this issue the stupidity of our government showed itself in a particularly multifaceted way, in all its glory. Firstly, they fulfilled this, obviously, political task of the West in the most scandalous way, snapping Moscow’s nose as strong as possible to provoke it to take retaliatory measures. Secondly, they did not find any convincing reason for such a demarche, so they made up an “antenna story”, in which even the most frostbitten PAS supporters did not believe. However, everything has long been clear about the Russian direction - under the current government we do not want and are not going to look in that direction: we don’t care about the interests of agrarians exporting to the Russian market, we don’t care about the situation of our citizens in the Russian Federation - they are the bad diaspora! I am not even talking about how all this will affect Moldova, if the war in Ukraine does not go the way our government expects - and it has already changed its track many times during this year and a half. Things are also sad in purely Moldovan affairs. The central authorities are in conscious conflict with Gagauzia, as if deliberately fueling another center of separatism. PAS chairman Igor Grosu defiantly calls the new bashkan “a representative of a bandit organization”, which does not meet even the minimum notions of ethics. Apparently, as in the case of the Russian embassy, the aim is to hurt the population and the new leadership of the autonomy. The decisions not to include Evghenia Gutul in the cabinet of ministers, to pressurize her with prosecutor’s threats and, most importantly, to sharply reduce payments to the Gagauz budget go down the same path. However, they do not plan to offend themselves. Despite the difficult socio-economic situation, despite the record poverty of the population in Moldovan history, despite the image losses, there is only talk of raising the salaries of ministers, judges and other important officials, on whose loyalty the regime should rest. PAS members have already become so brazen that an initiative group of 40 deputies tried to push through the Constitutional Court an amendment allowing legislators to engage in entrepreneurial activity. That is, to legalize what is now in the shadows, and to make “dough” and lobby their own business interests in parliament. References to the fact that this practice exists somewhere in the EU are completely out of place. What is good for countries with developed democracies is not suitable for our already super-corrupt state. So far, even the corrupt Constitutional Court has not dared to approve such changes that directly contradict the Constitution – yet much more is ahead.... We can easily continue the list of PAS “deeds”. Recall the next extension of the state of emergency regime, which they don’t really bother to justify. Or the complete disarray in the justice system, where the clans of the ruling party struggle and divide budgets and powers. Or the hasty exit from the CIS, which has already cost us the tragedy at the Chisinau airport. The point is clear – there is a chaos in domestic and foreign policy. What is the reason for this deplorable situation? After all, it would seem that the ruling party should have a minimal self-preservation mechanism on the eve of three election campaigns! But PAS persistently continues to make mess, losing its ratings to zero. I think the “yellows” are gradually, with increasing speed, losing control over the situation in the country and order even in their own ranks. It’s like a ship that leaks, loses its buoyancy, and instead of moving forward, the captain has to think only about how to fix the next hole and prevent his ship from sinking. This is why the factor of public opinion is completely immaterial when making managerial decisions. Andrei Spinu is one of the most odious politicians, a well-known corruptor and schemer, whose return to the government is fraught with the collapse of PAS ratings. It doesn’t matter if his clan won the internal struggle in the party. And now Spinu has returned to the same position and schemes, and at the same time made two of his fellow villagers ministers. What a forge for workforce in the Ratus village! The head of the border police is in fact the main responsible person who should have resigned after the shooting at the airport, in order to “save face” in front of the citizens. It doesn’t matter, he is Igor Grosu’s appointee, powerful schemes are tied to him, and he can’t just be removed without destroying the balance of intra-elite groups. The Moldovan tidbit is shrinking day by day, and the system is going more and more to pieces in attempts to divide it evenly, without infringing on anyone’s interests. So right now, PAS cannot even be considered as a political party – it is just a conglomerate of clans who are now completely at odds with each other, a purely parasitic superstructure above the country devouring the rest of our “pie”. Therefore, we should not be surprised that no one thinks much about the image effects of political decisions, which have no strategy or even tactics, not to mention analysis of risks and consequences. There is only a desire to grab more here and now, while it is possible, and to please the West as the basis of legitimacy and financial stability of the current government. But how long can we sail on this “holey ship”? Not that long. Sooner or later its stability will critically decrease, and one of the “holes” will be fatal. That is why I believe that PAS is already very close to political bankruptcy. And if not internal squabbles, then elections will end its mediocre rule and, likely, existence – or, maybe, even the West who finds it more and more costly to cover the stupidity of Moldovan rulers. But we will talk about this another time.