Vlad Filat remains top politician, Vladimir Voronin slips one position

Prime Minister Vlad Filat maintains the lead in the Top 50 most influential politicians of Moldova rankings for November with 256.8 points scored. He is followed by Acting President Marian Lupu and Mayor of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca, Info-Prim Neo reports. On the initiative of the Political Consultancy and Strategic Researches Center “Politicon”, 30 political experts, analysts and sociologists gave grades of 0 to 10 to politicians. The leader of the Communist Party Vladimir Voronin slipped one spot to the fourth, being followed by the Liberal leader Mihai Ghimpu. MP Igor Dodon moved up one position to the sixth. The seventh position is taken by Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Iurie Leanca, while the eighth – by the president of honor of the Democratic Party Dumitru Diacov. The deputy head of the Liberal-Democratic Party Valeriu Strelet comes ninth, while First Deputy Speaker Vladimir Plahotniuc ranks tenth. According to “Politicon” expert Ion Tabirta, the top ten politicians remained the same as last month, with minor changes of positions. “Vladimir Voronin and Dorin Chirtoaca exchanged places, while Igor Dodon climbed to the sixth spot. Iurie Leanca and Dumitru Diacov slipped by one spot, while Valeriu Strelet moved up one position,” Ion Tabirta stated for Info-Prim Neo. The next positions are taken by MPs Mark Tkachuk, Zinaida Greceanyi, Ion Hadirca, businessman Ion Sturza and Minister of Economy Valeriu Lazar. The leader of the Transnistrian region Igor Smirnov ranked 16th, Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Eugen Karpov – 17th, while constitutional judge Alexandru Tanase – 18th. Minister of Justice Oleg Efrim comes 19th, while Deputy Foreign Minister Natalia Gherman closes the list of Top 20 politicians. Ion Tabirta said there are not major changes in the rankings and this shows that things have stabilized on the political arena. “A novelty is the climb by Mark Tkachuk and Zinaida Greceanyi as well as by Veronica Abramchuk, who was included in the rankings for the first time,” he stated. The experts assessed the politicians according to the following criteria: real influence on the major political decisions, public popularity, visibility in the mass media, political prospects.