Moldovan President Nicolae Timofti took Chisinau Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca’s place in the ranking of the most influential politicians of August. The president went up by 3 positions compared to the previous month and was ranked 3rd in the top 10 most influential politician in the ranking made public by the “Politicon” Institute of Analysis and Political Consultancy, Info-Prim Neo reports. Ion Tabarta, “Politicon”‘s vice-chairman has said during a press conference that the top 2 places haven’t changed. Just like the previous month, these are held by prime-minister Vlad Filat and, respectively, by the vice-premier Iurie Leanca, Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration. After dropping by 1 position, Chisinau’s mayor, Dorin Chirtoaca was ranked fourth. The 5th place is taken by the speaker Marian lupu, and 6th – by the Liberal Party’s chairman, Mihai Ghimpu. Vladimir Voronin, PCRM’s leader has gone up by 1 position and is now placed 7th in the ranking, and the 8th place is surprisingly occupied by the new minister of internal affairs, Dorin Recean, who went up by 31 places compared to last month, when he barely made the ranking. The 9th position belongs to vice-speaker Vlad Plahotniuc, who was previously 7th, and the minister of justice, Oleg Efrim, another surprise of the top, went up by 6 positions and is now ranked 10th. Anatol Taranu, chairman of „Politicon”, has declared that Nicolae Timofti’s ascension to the third spot is a surprise, even though an increase was expected thanks to his activity. “But we are not expecting a further climb to the top from the president”, remarked Taranu. The great gap between the first and the second placed, Vlad Filat and Iurie Leanca, tells about the fact that the prime-minister is the undisputed leader of the country’s political life, added Taranu. In his opinion, Iurie Leanca’s stability on the second place is somehow strange, because a minister of foreign affairs is more of a technical politician that doesn’t manifest himself as a party leader. The “Politicon” president also talked about speaker Marian Lupu’s descent in the ranking and claims that this gradual drop is influenced by the fact that this politician lost the chance of becoming country president. However, we can expect both rises and falls in the ranking of the top most influential politicians in the country. As for the surprising 31 position climb of the new minister of internal affairs, Dorin Recean, Politicon’s director considers that this is owed to the fact that Dorin Recean has proven to be an active minister ready to drive new reforms forward. 35 experts have participated in making the ranking, and they have appreciated on a point-basis the politicians, depending on their influence over major political decisions in the country, but also by popularity, visibility in the press and political perspectives.