Change of government in Chișinău

The risks to security and the slow pace of reforms seem to be the causes of the change of government in Chișinău, the Republic of Moldova, a former Soviet republic with a majority Romanian-speaking population.

Bogdan Matei, 13.02.2023, 13:50

The Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, the pro-Western Natalia Gavrilița, has announced her resignation. President Maia Sandu thanked her for what she called the enormous sacrifice and efforts to lead the republic in a period marked by so many crises. Gavrilița had been at the helm of the Moldovan government since August 6, 2021, after the Action and Solidarity presidential party (PAS) had won the early parliamentary elections by a considerable margin, obtaining 63 of the 101 deputy mandates. With the resignation announcement, Gavrilița said that the republic was entering a new stage, in which security would be a priority. She will be replaced by the presidential advisor for security issues, Dorin Recean. A former interior minister between 2012 and 2014, Recean is the secretary general of the Supreme Security Council of the Republic of Moldova.

The political change comes against the background of the Russian invasion of neighboring Ukraine and of the hybrid war that decision-makers in Chișinău say Russia is waging against their republic. ‘All the teams subordinated to the Interior Ministry are prepared to intervene in case of contextual changes, in the border area or inside the Republic of Moldova’ the Interior Minister Ana Revenco said just before the prime minister resigned, and also after the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, had stated in Brussels that Russia was planning to destabilize the political situation in Chișinău.

All the elements of a hybrid war, such as false bomb alerts, cyber-attacks, illegally financed protests, energy blackmail, were, last year, a great challenge for the entire Internal Affairs system, minister Revenco told Radio Chișinău. She also adds that these threats continue in 2023, ‘which is why we are always on duty, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.’ The pro-war propaganda, incitement to hatred, disinformation, parts of the same hybrid war, are meant to weaken the resilience of citizens – warns the interior minister of the pro-Western Government of the Republic of Moldova. And the Security and Intelligence Service (SIS) announced that it had detected destabilizing activities.

“Based on the information presented by our Ukrainian partner and on internal data, we confirm that we have identified activities aimed at weakening and destabilizing (the Republic of) Moldova”, the SIS says in a statement, specifying that it cannot give more details, so as not to compromise the ongoing investigations. The Republic of Moldova is, like Ukraine, a candidate for joining the European Union, a condition that requires the implementation of extensive reforms. And the political analysts in Chișinău write that, beyond the security stakes of the change of government, there are indications that the real causes of the change are related to the slow pace of the reforms carried out by the Gavriliţa team and to the internal tensions within the Power. (LS)