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| Veaceslav Craciun | |
Maia Sandu’s relationship with the Autonomous Territorial Unit (ATU) of Gagauzia has been full of contradictions in the recent past. On the one hand, the President and her team have now advantageous opportunities for promoting political influence in the region. On the other hand, they eliminate the possibilities of dialogue and allow their opponents to take advantage.
History of relations
Despite the spread prejudice, Gagauzia hasn’t always been a problematic and unfriendly region from political viewpoint for Maia Sandu. When serving as minister of education, Maia Sandu has cooperated closely with the local education department and was met warmly at teachers’ conferences in Comrat.
The distancing occurred when Maia Sandu entered big politics, namely during the campaign prior to the presidential elections of 2016, when the politician didn’t have any meeting with the voters in the region before the first round of voting. Her team probably took a pragmatic decision to concentrate their efforts on the electorally promising areas. Or they probably felt uncertain in relation to the “pro-Russian Gagauz people” to whom “you don’t know what to say”. This way or another, Maia Sandu erected herself an obstacle to the communication with locals, which was strengthened by her Socialist opponents, who transformed this in time into a difficult political issue.
In 2019 already, as the Prime Minister, Sandu took a series of moves that seemed to have the potential to melt the hearts of the inhabitants of the ATU. For example, during the inauguration of reelected Bashkan Irina Vlah, she gave a symbolic speech about the necessity of respecting the powers of Gagauz-Yeri and of subsequently establishing efficient cooperation relations with the leaders of the region as part of the Government. By the way, Irina Vlah was the first among the Moldovan politicians who offered public support to Maia Sandu during the short, but decisive period of duality of power in June 2019.
In the autumn of 2020, a new campaign prior to the presidential elections was conducted and this represented one more challenge for Maia Sandu’s relations with Gagauz-Yeri. The aggressive electoral confrontation made Maia Sandu and the Socialist leader Igor Dodon appear as two irreconcilable political poles, of the power and the opposition. Together with Dodon, as far as it can be seen, Irina Vlah, who campaigned alongside her political ally, also became undesirable.
Cooling instead of warming
When the Bashkan didn’t congratulate Maia Sandu on her victory in the presidential elections and later wasn’t among the invitees at the inaugural ceremony, few intuited that the political angers will turn into long political cooling. In essence, the forecasts of this kind looked like being created out of thin air.
It was surprising when Maia Sandu eliminated Irina Vlah from the composition of the Supreme Security Council (SSC). It is not at all easy to explain objectively, from the viewpoint of the state interest, why ordinary MPs from the PAS and representatives of civil society were included in the composition of the Council, but no member of the government or the governor of the ATU were invited to form part of this.
When Oazu Nantoi, of the PAS, started to regularly visit Gagauz-Yeri at the beginning of 2021, it seemed that the pro-presidential party shows interest in the ATU and is concerned about the systemic development of the regional bodies. But the statements made by Oazu Nantoi at local and national TV channels showed that such conclusions are far from being pertinent. First of all, besides harsh criticism leveled at the Socialists, with a part of which the residents of Gagauz-Yeri can agree, the PAS proposed no positive agenda in the region. Secondly, the statements made by the MP on TVR Moldova channel, according to which the law on the special status of Gagauzia is an example of incompetence, allowed the opponents to accuse the party of having an anti-Gagauzia position.
Interest in Gagauzia: unclear or failed?
But it was about the party, not the President. In fact, the relationship between Maia Sandu and Irina Vlah, as between the President and the Bashkan, can still improve. Commenting for the media on the new composition of the SSC, Irina Vlah said the decision to exclude her was “a strange step” and “a dangerous signal”, but nevertheless she expressed her readiness and wish to cooperate. This seems possible as the Bashkan has the experience of successful interaction with ex-President Nicolae Timofti, who was considered a contradictory figure by the average Gagauz people.
In fact, it is not right to tie the prospects of restoring the relations with Gagauz-Yeri exclusively to its leader. Sandu has all the chances to establish a direct dialogue with Gagauz society by communicating with local staffs, civil society, businesspeople. For now, we have what we have: silence and absence of an attractive message from Maia Sandu and categorical statements from key representatives of her team, which seriously spoil the prospects of the PAS in the region.
A question arises: does Sandu have interests in Gagauzia in general and, if she has, how does she express them? In the context of the first part of the question, it is more or less clear: the President, besides aiming to extend the influence of her party, would like to be a President for all. The second part of the question remains open yet.
IPN publishes in the Op-Ed rubric opinion pieces submitted by authors not affiliated with our editorial board. The opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily coincide with the opinions of our editorial board.