Who Will Leave the Government?

Virctor ENI

The PAS government has enough odious, incompetent and simply scandalous characters who will have to be sacrificed before the parliamentary elections. The first one, Andrei Spinu, announced his resignation on his own, and others are coming soon

The past elections and the referendum have given both the authorities and the opposition a lot to think about: how to design an election strategy for the next year, how to draw the right conclusions from unexpected results. Regime’s opponents will certainly try to “insist” on protest sentiments by periodically staging street attacks. We saw something similar on Friday by the Socialists, although in this case the task was rather to ensure for a particular person the place of the PSRM leader, who will head its election list. If things go on like this, then they can lose a mobilized voter, losing the chance to oust the PAS. As for the authorities, with all the victory speeches, apparently, there are people in its ranks who managed to objectively assess the situation and realize that in fact everything is not that smooth. Judging by the first post-election decisions, there are not that many of them - most are still in the comfort zone, believing in the popular love for PAS. Nevertheless, Sandu, Grosu, Recean and other top officials suddenly started talking about resignations, which might surprise observers from outside who are not familiar with our realities. After all, it would seem that if the chess game for the presidency is won, then why sacrifice the pieces. But reshuffles are already inevitable: they, like everything else, will be presented under the guise of European integration, or rather the implementation of reforms and the plan to join the EU until 2030. And the real reasons are related to the fact that before the start of the parliamentary elections, the PAS needs to relieve the accumulated socio-political anger through regular personnel changes, thus satisfying the growing demand for changes in the country among society. The press has already been flooded with forecasts about possible candidacies of ministers for departure. I see no point in making wild guesses. It is better to give a brief assessment of the most odious members of the current government. The government has always lacked persons of natural gifts; thus, they can dismiss anyone, but nothing changes. Dorin Recean should have been first in line, but due to the latest news, we concede the priority to Andrei Spinu, who announced his resignation in the morning not only from the post of minister, but also a member of the PAS. This is a pretty logical step. Involved in the election campaign of Maia Sandu in recent months and seemingly retired from his immediate ministerial affairs, he still maintained leadership in the ranking of officials who cause the greatest irritation to citizens. And yet I cannot ignore the embeddedness of Spinu in the current regime. And that’s why I see the voluntary resignation as a political detox or, if you want, a tactical retreat into the shadows. Let’s get back to Dorin Recean. For almost two years, his office has not demonstrated any outstanding results in any of the areas, providing the prime minister with a huge anti-rating. He can only take credit for his active involvement in the presidential race clear on whose side. That is why, as well as taking into account the special ties of Recean with the head of state and some embassies, his resignation is extremely unlikely at the current stage. Next, we will focus on Deputy Prime Minister for Economic and Digital Development Dumitru Alaiba. This is most likely the main candidate for elimination. Not only has he failed to cope with the economic crisis, but he is also a constant figure in scandals, the object of criticism and sarcastic ridicule. Perhaps only Spinu could match the level of political toxicity and damage to the image of an already weak government. Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Vladimir Bolea is another person over whom the Sword of Damocles has been hanging for a long time. Somehow, he managed to stop the contradictions with agricultural producers, but the case remains open. And in order to pacify the disgruntled farmers, PAS may well sacrifice this official. Moreover, the last straw could be the situation when, literally on the eve of the first round, a group of farmers dragged Maia Sandu into the protracted dispute with the government – and the president’s actions did not add to her popularity and popular love. Minister Veronica Mihailov-Moraru is in a very fragile position. The mess in the justice system simply requires drastic decisions and sweeping strikes against those clans that have failed one of the fundamental reforms. In fact, the primary responsibility for this lies with the top officials, but is it possible that our prime minister or speaker of parliament self-chastise themselves and resign. Therefore, middle-level officials and the minister herself, who in principle has limited opportunities to influence the general state of affairs in justice, will fall under the “governmental guillotine”. Interior Minister Adrian Efros is also at risk of being subjected to political slaughter. According to some rumors, he is a protege of Andrei Spinu, who would do anything not to lose control of one of the key law enforcement agencies. Nevertheless, the relatively successful actions of the so–called “Sor gang” are a direct consequence of the impotence of law enforcement agencies represented by the police and the General Inspectorate. If the authorities follow the path of increasing repression, then, of course, there should be a completely different, more determined person in place of the Interior Minister. The resignation or retention of Efros’s position will be the main marker of whether Spinu lost the governmental war or his departure is only a temporary phenomenon. It is likely that the dismissals will affect not only government officials, but also other institutions that have failed to meet their tasks. At the same time, judging by the mood, personnel changes are unlikely to be radical, although in some places they are highly required. It just so happens that political circumstances dictate their own rules. Therefore, we will certainly see the mildest scenario with point solutions, so that the opposition has no reason to say that the ruling regime has proved its inefficiency. Obviously, all kinds of disguises of the PAS political image have nothing to do with a real desire to strengthen the managerial potential of public institutions. Even after the work of the first government of Natalia Gavrilita, it became clear that situation with the personnel of the party in power is rather poor: we are not even talking about a conditional “bench”, but about the main staff. Therefore, the best way to characterize the planned ministerial reshuffle is a quote from Krylov’s fable “Quartet”: “And you, my friends, no matter your positions, will never be musicians.”