[Info-Prim Neo analysis] The Alliance for European Integration (AEI) failed to elect the head of state as an intermediary goal, but succeeded in maintaining the government coalition for an indefinite period as a major goal. At the same time, the parliamentary opposition – the Communist Party (PCRM) – achieved its intermediary objective of preventing the election of a President representing the AEI, but failed to achieve the main objective of returning to power by causing early legislative elections. The PCRM was unable to field a candidate for the presidency, though it had the possibility, chance and interest of doing it. This time the AEI won the political battle with the PCRM, restoring the situation that existed before the date of the presidential elections was set. It is not yet known if the AEI achieved this result in a collective, conscious and deliberate way or it is the effect of the ordinary internal disagreements. But it is the result that counts in the end. Thus, the ruling alliance did not put forward a candidate for the post of head of state as it could not identify a person who would poll the necessary number of votes – at least 61. The reasons why such a person wasn’t found were discussed a lot. Now the created situation must be interpreted officially so that it becomes clear what the parliamentary parties must do next. Most probably the AEI will say that the ‘wedding did not take place’ because the candidates weren’t fielded, and the parliamentary parties will have to fix a new date for the same ‘wedding’. The PCRM already said, though Sergiu Sirbu, who is the main legal expert of the Communist parliamentary group, that the situation can be considered as failure of the first round of voting and there should be set a date for rerun elections. “The legislature is to fix the date of rerun elections. If no candidates are put up again or the head of state is not elected in rerun elections, there will appear circumstances for dissolving Parliament and setting the date of early legislative elections,” said Sergiu Sirbu. The decision in Parliament is yet taken by those who hold most of the seats and this is the ruling alliance. The alliance will probably take a different decision and the PCRM will appeal it to the Constitutional Court. The Court will examine the issue not in the shortest time, in accordance with the law, while the verdict at this stage cannot be anticipated. The time passes and the AEI achieves its goals, while the PCRM does not. The PCRM would have created a favorable situation if it fielded its own presidential candidate. This candidate would have had no chances to be elected, but the PCRM is not a naïve party and the goal would have been different. Thus, the two stages of the ordinary elections would have been taken place on November 18 or in two weeks and the rerun elections would have been held within 30 days. The situation would have repeated in 30 days and there would have been announced early elections, as the PCRM wants. As the legislation does not clearly say how to interpret the situation when no presidential candidates are registered, we can predict that the political crisis in Moldova will continue and will possibly become more serious, being stimulated by the irreconcilable disagreements between the government coalition and the parliamentary opposition on the one hand, and between the components of the ruling alliance on the other hand. The situation in both of the cases leads to early elections. The only difference is when they will be called. [Valeriu Vasilica, Info-Prim Neo]