“The return of ex-prime minister Tarlev to politics for the fourth time creates only crowdedness on the “Friends of Russia in Moldova” segment that includes almost 1/4 of the political parties registered by the Public Services Agency. All the ideas of ex-prime minister Tarlev do not contain any innovative touch compared to the ideas expressed by him 15 years ago or by other pro-Russian political parties. It’s true that ex-prime minister Tarlev has managerial capacities, is disciplined and correct, within the limits of decency, in relation to his political opponents, remains faithful to his political ideas. But these characteristics of bonhomie are rather a disadvantage in the current political struggle, which has polarized Moldovan society to the limit...”
---

Inexhaustible ambition of the longest-serving prime minister

On May 1, 2024, on the International Workers’ Day, the longest-serving ex-prime minister of the Republic of Moldova, Vasile Tarlev, gave an interview to a private TV channel. The ex-prime minister has a reputation as a disciplined administrator and diligent executor of the plans and strategies of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM), which promoted him to that position. From this point of view, it is somewhat symbolic that the interview was given on Workers’ Day. In fact, the content of the mentioned interview attracted attention, in particular, for the ex-prime minister’s original expressions. In this respect, the former prime minister’s confession regarding the fruitful cooperation he had with the leadership of Ukraine, without having asked it to return Cetatea Albă (the White Fortress) and direct exit to the Black Sea, is remarkable.

Another curiosity related to the mentioned interview refers to the fact that it is circulated by all the electronic media resources of the PCRM, including the Komsomol ones. So, we could assume that the PCRM currently regrets the sacrificing of Prime Minister Tarlev in March 2008, immediately after the sixth congress held by the party in March 2008 and his subsequent intimidation. The sacrifice was made on the altar of the preparations for the 2009 parliamentary elections of the PCRM, which planned to continue its activity with another, more creative and innovative government team. The truth is that Prime Minister Tarlev, from the very beginning, immediately after his first appointment on April 19, 2001, had enemies within the PCRM, who publicly asked – Who are you, Mister Tarlev? Then, the ex-prime minister tried to respond to them accordingly, without succeeding in disarming them, and seven years later the enemies from inside the PCRM managed to bring him down.  

Ex-prime minister Tarlev’s attempts to return to politics

The interest in ex-prime minister Vasile Tarlev’s recent interview is generated by his fourth attempt to return to politics. Recently, on February 9, 2024, he became chairman of the Future of Moldova Party (PVM), which was registered on November 25, 2022 under the initial name “Bugeacul Nostru” Party (PBN). In fact, the takeover of a regional party in Gagauzia by ex-prime minister Tarlev is not accidental. As early as 2008, after resigning as prime minister, he developed a concept on the relations between the central and regional powers in Gagauzia, insisting that: “ensuring the representation of the Gagauz autonomous unit in all the branches of power is mandatory. One of the deputy prime ministers of the Cabinet of Moldova must represent Gagauzia. In the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, a quota must be allotted for representatives of Gagauzia (at least 4 seats)”, etc. Thus, ex-prime minister Tarlev publicly pledged to support the constant demands of the leaders of the Gagauz autonomous unit, which the PCRM refused to accept after those leaders provoked a political conflict in Gagauzia in 2002. It is noteworthy, however, that Vasile Tarvev didn’t refer in any way to the conflict in question when he held the office of prime minister.

The other three attempts to return to politics were unsuccessful. The point is that the separation from the PCRM in 2008 was camouflaged by statements such as “voluntary resignation”, etc. Normally, it is strange for someone to give up the highest office in a state with a parliamentary regime - head of government - for accepting the position of chairman of an extraparliamentary party with very vague electoral prospects only half a year later. However, on September 27, 2008, Vasile Tarlev accepted to become chairman of the Centrist Union of Moldova (UCM). The goal was to compete with the PCRM in the parliamentary elections of spring 2009. But in those elections, the UCM, led by ex-prime minister Tarlev, was unable to pass the electoral threshold of 4%, garnering only 2.75% of the vote. It turned out that the added value of the ex-prime minister, as an electoral locomotive, was of only 2%. However, compared to the electoral score of the UCM in the 2005 parliamentary elections, when the party accumulated only 0.75%, the contribution of ex-prime minister Tarlev was substantial.

The modest results in the elections made ex-prime minister Tarlev leave the UCM. The split from the party resulted in a resounding scandal. The former chairman of the UCM and the founder of the party, Mihai Petrache, sued ex-prime minister Tarlev after he had quarreled with the latter. Consequently, on November 19, 2009, ex-Prime Minister Tarlev left the UCM. Three years later, on June 30, 2012, Vasile Tarlev made his second attempt to enter politics. This time, he participated in the founding assembly of the Revival Party, becoming deputy chairman of the party, which, together with a number of MPs who defected from the PCRM, including Igor Dodon, Zinaida Grechanyi and Vladimir Țurcan, laid the basis of a permanent forum called “Moldova: the left-wing alternative”, with the participation of the PSRM,the  Socialist People’s Party, the Patriots of Moldova Party and the United Moldova Party. The announced goals of the left-wing conglomerate were: to promote leftist values in the Republic of Moldova; to strength the Moldovan state, Moldovan identity; to protect historical memory; to promote the Eurasian course; to introduce the History of Moldova in schools, etc. In the 2014 parliamentary elections, the Revival Party, led by former prime minister Tarlev, garnered only 0.26% of the vote. This failure, like the previous one, made the ex-prime minister split from the Revival Party, which didn’t contend in any elections until 2023, when it joined the clones of the former Shor Party.  

The third attempt to return to politics was somehow embarrassing for a former prime minister. In the 2016 presidential election, Vasile Tarlev submitted the documents to the Central Election Commission (CEC) to be registered as a candidate, but he failed to even collect the minimum required number of 15,000 valid signatures of voters. Respectively, the CEC rejected Vasile Tarlev’s request to be registered as a presidential candidate.  

Ex-prime minister Tarlev’s involuntary revenge on PCRM’s arrogance

Despite Vasile Tarlev’s unsuccessful attempts to return to politics, he involuntarily left a deep imprint on the Republic of Moldova’s political history. The point is that the very first attempt to return to politics resulted in a big surprise for ex-prime minister Vasile Tarlev. The Ministry of Justice (MJ) of the new government team of the PCRM refused to recognize him as chairman of the UCM, invoking procedural violations when convening the fourth congress of the given party. The surprise was not a single one as the Ministry of Justice also refused Vasile Tarlev the registration of the public organization “Friends of Russia in Moldova”, which was suspected of relations with oligarchs from the Russian Federation. In such circumstances, the UCM on December 13, 2008 convened another congress – the fifth one - to confirm the election of the former prime minister as the party’s chairman. This time, the MJ had to accept Vasile Tarlev as chairman of the UCM. On the civic dimension, Tarlev remained equally insistent, announcing a future “green revolution” in the Republic of Moldova, centering on the supporting of producers of “organic agri-food products”.

In the parliamentary elections of April 5, 2009, the UCM, headed by Vasile Tarlev as an electoral locomotive, managed to accumulate only 2.75% of the vote, the electoral threshold being 4%. Despite the modest result, the impact of Vasile Tarlev’s participation in the April 5, 2009 elections was extraordinary. The fact is that the remnants of the ex-prime minister’s popularity attracted to the UCM’s side about 30,000 votes that most likely would have gone to the PCRM’s electoral piggy bank if the latter hadn’t humiliated Tarlev by refusing to confirm him as chairman of the UCM and also as president of the Association “Friends of Russia in Moldova”. Here, we should remember that, after the parliamentary elections of April 5, 2009, the PCRM was short of only about 2,000 votes to obtain the 61st seat, according to the descending shares of the proportional system – the famous golden vote. In the absence of the golden vote, the PCRM lost full power in 2009, becoming a peripheral party that survives thanks to the coalition with the PSRM. Therefore, ex-prime minister Tarlev’s revenge for the humiliation and intimidation he had been subjected to by the PCRM was an appropriate one, although, as it was mentioned, it was absolutely involuntary.

Vasile Tarlev’s assessment of current government’s performance

In the interview, Vasile Tarlev gave an extremely negative assessment of the current government of the Republic of Moldova. However, Tarlev’s criticism, although relentless, doesn’t exceed the limits of decency and common sense, unlike the criticism of other ex-prime ministers and the ex-governor of Gagauzia. Probably, ex-prime minister Tarlev remembers how he himself was the target of criticism on the part of not only political opponents, but also of the PCRM’s exponents who nominated him for premiership.

An eloquent example for assessing the Tarlev Cabinet, of October 2001, a few months after he took office, is as follows: “The Prime Minister is lying. The source of the daily destabilization of the country is the current government itself, headed by him [Tarlev]. During a short period of time – starting with mid-September! – he literally created opposition to the authorities out of the blue. The opposition comes from those persons who voted for the Communists, who relied on us. I understand that the members of the Cabinet are not interested in such political finesse... Rising electricity prices, redistribution of the petroleum products market, ban on internet technologies... represent the most significant steps of the Government. They seem to have committed all this to demonstrate that the executive is prepared to admit any wrongdoing... Moreover, lawlessness is covered by the interests of the state, ostensibly. The methods of the Cabinet of Ministers are – harsh police terror against any socially useful economic activity and powerlessness against crime, etc.” Here, it is worth mentioning that the criticism leveled at the current government in ex-prime minister Tarlev’s interview pale in comparison to those leveled at the Tarlev Cabinet. 

As for the current democratic processes in the country, ex-prime minister Tarlev is extremely harsh, describing them as dictatorial. He has the right to believe so, although the current government accepted him as chairman of the PVM without any hindrance, unlike the PCRM, which hindered him from taking over the position of UCM chairman. Moreover, the PCRM also banned him from registering the association “Friends of Russia in Moldova”, although in 2009 Russia hadn’t yet invaded Ukraine. Also, the current government didn’t start a criminal case against him, similar to the case that was generically called “Bucuria”, which also had Vasile Tarlev as a protagonist, giving him the reason to declare in 2008 that “anti-democratic and incorrect things often happen in Moldova”.  So, in fact, the current government is not as tough as that of the PCRM, which prevented Tarlev from returning to politics, especially since the current recognized enemies of the ex-prime minister have recently set it on Tarlev, insisting that he is a KGB agent, their proof being the fact that he was promoted with Russian support to the position of chairman of the Council of the International Congress of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ICIE) in 2014, and two years later he was awarded the Order of Friendship, which was conferred by Vladimir Putin himself.

Conclusions

The political rating of ex-premier Vasile Tarlev has completely withered away over the past 15 years, after he resigned from the office of prime minister. Proof of this serve the descending electoral results of him and the parties he led: 2.75% with the UCM in the parliamentary elections of 2009; 0.26% with the Revival Party in the 2014 parliamentary elections; failure to collect 15,000 valid signatures to be registered as a candidate in the presidential election of 2016.

The return of ex-prime minister Tarlev to politics for the fourth time creates only crowdedness on the “Friends of Russia in Moldova” segment that includes almost 1/4 of the political parties registered by the Public Services Agency. All the ideas of ex-prime minister Tarlev do not contain any innovative touch compared to the ideas expressed by him 15 years ago or by other pro-Russian political parties.

It’s true that ex-prime minister Tarlev has managerial capacities, is disciplined and correct, within the limits of decency, in relation to his political opponents, remains faithful to his political ideas. But these characteristics of bonhomie are rather a disadvantage in the current political struggle, which has polarized Moldovan society to the limit.