The investing of the Filip Government, protests, direct presidential elections after a period of about 20 years and other events marked the year 2016. At yearend, IPN News Agency presents the most important events of each of the 12 months of the year.
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February key event: registration of Political Party “Platform Dignity and Truth”.
February was marked by calmness in society. Experts anticipated it was the lull before the storm.
In the middle of the month, Valeriu Strelet, who then served as acting chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party, stated that the Democratic Party controlled all the state institutions and used administrative resources to definitively destroy the PLDM. Afterward, Valeriu Strelet withdrew from politics and was no longer in the focus of the press.
On February 18, there was approved a calendar plan for removing the shortcomings in the implementation of the Association Agreement with the EU. It was also decided that each authority would report on the existent problems and the measures taken to eliminate the delays. A priority reform action roadmap was later agreed to regain foreign partners’ confidence.
On February 22, searches were carried out at the Chisinau City Hall. As a result, 12 persons, including public functionaries and businessmen, were arrested within 35 criminal cases initiated over corruption in the building sector of Chisinau. The cases are yet pending.
The same day, it was announced that ex-foreign minister Natalia Gherman was fielded for the post of UN Secretary General, but she didn’t obtain it.
On February 24, the Political Party “Platform Dignity and Truth” was registered at the Ministry of Justice, with Andrei Nastase as its chairman. The foundations of the new party were laid in December 2015 by renaming and changing the statutes of the existent People’s Force Party. The initiative group for creating the party included the leaders of the Civic Platform “Dignity and Truth” that was founded in February 2015 amid the financial-banking fraud called the ‘theft of the century’. Opinion polls showed the Political Party “Platform Dignity and Truth” was among the top three favorites in possible early parliamentary elections. When it was decided that the Head of State will be elected by the people, by direct vote, the party’s leader Andrei Nastase announced his candidacy and collected the necessary number of signatures, but withdrew from the race two weeks before the elections in favor of the leader of the Party “Action and Solidarity” Maia Sandu.
On February 25, the law on the prosecution service was passed in the final reading. This started to be applied in autumn, following the amendment of the Constitution. After the law was adopted, Corneliu Gurin resigned from the post of prosecutor general, which he had held since 2013. The post was occupied on an interim basis by Eduard Harunjen. Under the new law, the prosecutor general is selected by the Superior Council of Prosecutors, based on the results of a public contest, and is confirmed to post by the President for a single seven-year term in office, without the possibility of renewal. As a result of the given amendments, Eduard Harunjen was chosen winner of the contest to fill the post of prosecutor general on December 7. The next day he was confirmed by presidential decree.
Selection by Mariana Galben, IPN
