Nicolae Timofti ranks fourth among most influential politicians

Moldova’s President Nicolae Timofti for the first time entered the rankings of the most influential politicians, which is compiled by the Strategic Researches and Political Consultancy Center “Politicon”. He comes fourth in the March rankings. As the previous month, the top two positions are taken by Vlad Filat and Marian Lupu, while Iurie Leanca was placed third, Info-Prim Neo reports. In a news conference on April 4, “Politicon” director Anatol Taranu said that Nicolae Timofti is yet an unknown figure for the experts, who earlier did not have the possibility of testing him. “We think that Nicolae Timofti can take a better place in the rankings. He started with the fourth, but will definitely move up. It depends on his deeds and the future appraisals of the experts,” he stated. Prime Minister Vlad Filat continues to top the rankings with 278 points. He is followed by Head of Parliament Marian Lupu with 238.5 points. Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Iurie Leanca climbed five spots from the previous rankings, to the third. “Iurie Leanca heads the institution that achieved the most notable results in the Moldova politics,” said Anatol Taranu. The fifth position is taken by the Liberal Party head Mihai Ghimpu. He outran Mayor of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca, who comes sixth. Experts say this is due to the fact that the election of the President was an enormous success of the Alliance for European Integration. The leader of the Party of Socialists Igor Dodon was placed seventh. The votes of the Socialists played an important role in the election of the head of state. The Communist leader Vladimir Voronin ranks ninth. “The experts do not approve of the unconstructive approach adopted by the PCRM for overcoming the political crisis and, if nothing changes, Vladimir Voronin will go down,” said Anatol Taranu. First Deputy Speaker Vlad Plahotniuc and the president of honor of the Democratic Party Dumitru Diacov came eighth and tenth respectively. According to the experts, the two are very influential members of the Democratic Party and had a good performance in March. The rankings of the 50 most influential politicians is compiled based on the assessments made by 31 experts, who give grades to the politicians according to their influence on the major political decisions taken in the country, their popularity and visibility in the media and their political prospects.