Moldova is already in a political crisis. Theoretically, the administration could try to transform its government methods, but this perspective is probably not very realistic, considers the expert of the European Union Institute for Security Studies in Paris Nicu Popescu. In an interview for Radio Free Europe, quoted by IPN, the expert said that Moldova is heading for early legislative elections that will modify the way it is governed at a time when the ruling parties have no strategy and no energy to make this change on the way.
“It’s not excluded that the government will try to respond to the people’s pressure by several formal dismissals, but I don’t think that this will change the political dynamics. It’s clear that the people of Moldova are dissatisfied not with the governor of the National Bank or a particular minister, but with the government methods that for now seem to remain unchanged,” said the expert.
Nicu Popescu stated that the political will does not appear inadvertently. Most of the times it appears as a result of pressure exerted by society. This pressure in the functional democratic regimes is exerted during elections, but in Moldova the problem is that the political mandate was given to the current government not long ago. “After the elections of last November and particularly after this year’s local elections, it’s hard to imagine electoral methods for expressing the dissatisfaction with the current government. On the other hand, the current government does not seem to remobilize its efforts to minimize, if not to combat, corruption. Therefore, the pressure of the street is practically the only method of continuing pressurizing the government so as to least minimize those corrupt abuses committed over the last few years,” he said.
The expert noted that Moldova is already facing a major political crisis, even if the alliance formally holds a majority in Parliament. A lot depends on how the current alliance would eventually lose this majority. “If individual lawmakers leave it, the government could probably continue by coopting two, three, four MPs in support of particular decisions,” he said.
Nicu Popescu presumed that this cooptation can take place including by corruption methods. But, if a party withdraws from the government, the capacity to act of a minority government will evidently be much weaker than when individual MPs leave the factions that now hold a majority in Parliament.
