www.ssoar.info Moldova - Key Challenges and Political Developments Burkhardt, Fabian Veröffentlichungsversion / Published Version Zeitschriftenartikel / journal article Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Burkhardt, F. (2020). Moldova - Key Challenges and Political Developments. Südosteuropa Mitteilungen, 60(01-02), 147-159. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-70278-4 Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Dieser Text wird unter einer CC BY-NC-ND Lizenz This document is made available under a CC BY-NC-ND Licence (Namensnennung-Nicht-kommerziell-Keine Bearbeitung) zur (Attribution-Non Comercial-NoDerivatives). For more Information Verfügung gestellt. Nähere Auskünfte zu den CC-Lizenzen finden see: Sie hier: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.de Südosteuropa Mitteilungen | 01 – 02 | 2020 Berichte 147 Concluding with optimism, Adelheid Wölfl and closed the discussion. Hansjörg Brey thanked the panellists and International Workshop at the European Academy in Berlin Moldova – Key Challenges and Political Developments Organizers: Southeast Europe Association (SOG), funded by the German Federal Foreign Office via the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe Berlin, 13 / 14 December 2019 Report by Fabian Burkhardt, Berlin Introduction agreement for cooperation, electing Maia Sandu This report gives an overview of discussion in as new Prime Minister of the Republic of Mol- the realm of the Southeast Europe Association’s dova. Sandu is a former Minister of Education Workshop on current political developments and World Bank adviser. Hopes were high that and challenges in Moldova on the 13th and 14th under the new government the country could December 2019 in Berlin. The workshop gath- return to the reform path that had been ne- ered 50 politicians and experts from Moldova, glected in recent years. However, after the fall as well as experts from Germany and other EU of the government on 12 November 2019 follow- countries to discuss the key challenges Moldo- ing a no-confidence vote in parliament, the sit- va faced in 2019 and to give an outlook on what uation seems once again unclear and snap lies ahead in 2020. elections likely. Besides, taking stock of the country’s turbulent In order to shed light on the recent develop- political year 2019, the panels addressed more ments and a turbulent year in Moldova, the specific issues such as reforms, the economy, workshop aimed to take stock of domestic poli- migration, energy as well as foreign policy with tics in 2019 and the prospects for 2020, the a specific focus on the two main external actors state of institutional reforms and the country’s Russia and the EU. Discussions benefited from agenda, Moldova’s economic situation, as well two background papers which have been pub- as its international politics. In order to under- lished in the SOG’s online paper series. As the stand the latest developments and to draw workshop took place under the Chatham House conclusions for the future, also the develop- Rule, discussions are summarized without nam- ments witnessed during the last decade were ing speakers. considered. In 2009, Moldova was already in a similar situation, with the change of govern- Background ment from the Party of Communists to the ‘Alli- After years of polarization between self-de- ance for European Integration’ coalition. Despite clared ‘pro-Russian’ and ‘pro-EU’ camps, the fo- of high hopes for change, domestic politics cus of Moldovan politics seemed lately to be were soon characterized by an infinite struggle shifting from geopolitics to domestic reforms. for power among domestic elites. When it The parliamentary elections on 24 February comes to reforms, the formal adoption of poli- 2019 had split the votes between the Socialist cies to fight corruption, to increase the inde- Party of President Dodon (31.15 %), the reformist pendence of the judiciary, and to strengthen in- and grassroots ACUM platform (26.87 %), and the stitutions was rarely followed-up by proper im- until then ruling Democratic Party (23.62 %), and plementation. Thus, the question was what les- thus gave no single party an outright majority. sons should be drawn from past experience After months of deadlock, in June 2019 the So- and for international actors dealing with Mol- cialists and ACUM surprisingly reached an dova. 148 Südosteuropa Mitteilungen | 01 – 02 | 2020 Berichte Panel 1: Domestic Politics in 2019 elections. Among electoral malpractice, the The speakers of the panel unanimously agreed speakers mentioned the use of administrative that for Moldova, 2019 was a year of turbulence. resources and vote buying. The parliamentary elections in February ended in a constitutional crisis. The deadlock was ter- Of special concern was the lack of impartiality minated in June when a coalition government of media as well as fake news and the spread was formed by the Party of Socialists of the Re- of disinformation on social media. Due to polit- public of Moldova (PSRM, Socialists) and the ical connections of media owners, in particular ACUM electoral bloc. But the coalition govern- TV, national and regional media are used ment headed by Prime Minister Maia Sandu against political opponents. While many TV sta- (ACUM) lasted only until November when it was tions used to be controlled by Vladimir Plahot- brought down by a parliamentary no-confi- niuc, some speakers wondered how the Social- dence vote and was replaced by a new govern- ists managed to increase the number of televi- ment headed by former Minister of Finance Ion sion outlets affiliated with their party in a short Chicu. period of time. Another concern was the in- creasing presence of Russian state television on The various epithets used to describe these two the Moldovan media market. Another feature of governments are already indicative: While the electoral malpractice is the increasing amount Sandu government was described as an “im- of unaccountable money funneled into election possible” or “unnatural” coalition, or even an campaigns. This is both due to loopholes in leg- “unholy alliance”, the “technocratic” Chicu gov- islation as well as non-compliance by a wide- ernment which features a significant number of spread disregard of existing legislation. former advisers of President Igor Dodon was described as a “tacit coalition” between the So- The emergence of the Sandu coalition govern- cialists and the Democratic Party of Moldova ment and diverging goals within the coalition: (PDM, Democrats). While the ouster of the long- The main reasons for the creation of the “un- time grey cardinal behind the PDM, Vladimir natural” or “impossible” coalition between the Plahotniuc, was generally seen as a boon for previously opposed political forces PSRM and the political development of Moldova, concerns ACUM was the common goal to get rid of were raised about the potential emergence of a Vladimir Plahotniuc. The parties shared the in- new “strongman” – President Igor Dodon – terest of dismantling elements of the previous whose major goal is thought to be his reelec- regime, namely the strong control over political tion at the upcoming presidential elections institutions and monopolies over the economy. slated for the end of 2020. Rather than continu- A symbol of the pledge to work together was ing the reform agenda of the previous Sandu the Temporary Provisional Agreement that was government, the intention of the Chicu govern- signed by the parties. In the initial stage, a few ment was primarily to support president Dodon common objectives could be identified: First, in in achieving electoral victory in the next presi- the short-term to conduct a justice reform and dential elections. the depoliticization of state institutions. Sec- ond, to organize snap elections freely, based on Causes for the political turmoil: The main the new proportional electoral system. And thrust of arguments focused on Moldova as a third, there was to be a division of labor in ex- captured state with profound problems with ternal policy: The Sandu government and ACUM good governance and the rule of law. As one were committed to restore good relations with speaker put it: Moldova is not divided by geo- the EU while Igor Dodon and the Socialists were politics or competing narratives about the past, to restore good relations with Russia. but by kleptocracy. Features of this weak state include an oversize role of oligarchs in politics The overall performance of the Sandu govern- and monopolies in the economy, as well as a ment was aptly summarized in the phrase: “one politicized judicial system and civil service. government, two parallel agendas.” The most These general issues with the rule of law have frequent metaphor most speakers appeared to significant effects on political campaigns and agree with was: “ACUM danced ballet while the Südosteuropa Mitteilungen | 01 – 02 | 2020 Berichte 149 Socialists were boxing.” The hardly hidden aim government was committed to restore good re- of this “boxing” approach of the Socialists was lations with the EU, Dodon and the Socialists to take up as many key positions in the “force intended to restore good relations with Russia. institutions” and the judiciary as possible. Meanwhile, the Sandu government was “danc- While some palpable reform progress helped to ing ballet” and pursuing its overarching goal to unlock money from the IMF, EU, and the EBRD, conduct uncompromising reforms. The key pil- the early collapse of the coalition prompted the lars of