Igor Dodon was elected chairman of the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova (PSRM) at the party’s 19th congress held last weekend. The congress restored the post of chairperson of the party after abolishing it in 2021, IPN reports.

A new nine-member composition of the PSRM Executive Committee was elected. The members are: Igor Dodon, Vlad Batrîncea, Olga Cebotari, Grigore Novac, Vladimir Odnostalco, Adela Brăileanu, Alla Pilipetskaya, Grigore Uzun, and Ecaterina Medvedeva.

According to a press release of the PSRM, in his speech Igor Dodon noted the importance of 2024, which is a presidential election year in the Republic of Moldova, and described the situation in the country as “economic and political impasse in which the country was brought under the leadership of Maia Sandu and the PAS”.

According to the PSRM’s chairman, the alternative of the course pursued by the current government “consists in proclaiming the national interest of the Republic of Moldova as the supreme political goal.” In this connection, he returned to the previously promoted theses concerning “the promotion of a balanced foreign policy, maintaining of the Moldovan statehood, independence, sovereignty and neutrality, the need to restore the country’s territorial integrity... protection of Orthodoxy and Christian and traditional values, respect for democracy, rule of law and freedom of expression, etc.”

The press release doesn’t contain trenchant attitudes of the party and its new leader regarding Moldova’s accession to the Eastern geopolitical space, led by the Russian Federation, or to the European Union, a course promoted by the current government and President Maia Sandu.

The PSRM’s spokeswoman Carmen Lupei told RFE/RL’s Moldovan Service that the congress didn’t consider fielding Igor Dodon as a presidential candidate in this autumn’s elections, but this issue will be discussed later. In 2016, Igor Dodon was elected president of the Republic of Moldova after winning the runoff vote against Maia Sandu. Four years later he conceded the post to Sandu in the first round of voting.

Igor Dodon also held the position of leader of the PSRM from 2011 until 2016, when he was elected president of the Republic of Moldova. In December 2021, the position of PSRM chairperson was abolished and the party was led by an Executive Committee. Since December 2023, Igor Dodon had served as the PSRM’s executive secretary. Currently, Igor Dodon is featured in several criminal cases in which he pleads not guilty, describing them as politically motivated.