The head of the Party “Action and Solidarity” (PAS) Maia Sandu said the PAS will not extend the negotiations for identifying a common candidate for the presidential elections with pro-Russian parties. According to her, the party wants not only to get rid of an oligarch, but to also re-form the system so that the state could not be captured by a person or a group of persons. She made such statements in the public debate “Common candidate of the right in the presidential elections: necessity and possibility, advantages and disadvantages”, which is the 57th installment of the series “Developing political culture by public debates”.

Maia Sandu noted that they are discussing a common candidate for the presidential elections on the political center-right. They also consider the possibility of identifying a candidate among civil society organizations and are now discussing a technical mechanism for choosing a common candidate of the political center-right so that this has bigger chances.

The PAS head said that if the common candidate is identified, this should not be made public before the government makes known the conditions of the elections. If this candidate is known, the conditions of the elections will not be clearly specified and the government will try to diminish the candidate’s chances.

According to Maia Sandu, the future President of Moldova will not be able to essentially improve the situation. However, the role of the future Head of State is important. “To change dramatically the situation to the better, we need parliamentary elections, while the Head of State can trigger off the annihilation of the system that captured the state, but can also start the building of state institutions,” said the politician.

As to the quality of the future President, Maia Sandu said this must be a person of integrity because the lack of credibility on the part of the people is the biggest problem. The future Head of State must also be a good professional and must be able to identify methods by which to promote healthy reforms. This should be a person with a high popular approval rating or whose popularity can be increased.

The public debate “Common candidate of the right in the presidential elections: necessity and possibility, advantages and disadvantages” is the 57th installment of the series of debates “Developing political culture by public debates” that are organized with the assistance of the German Foundation “Hanns Seidel”.