Moldova’s Political Crisis: What’s next?

Dicussion on Moldova's ongoing political crisis, the reasons behind the different actors involvement and the challenges the new government now faces.

Guests

Vadim Pistrinciuc, Visiting Fellow, ECFR, Former Member of Parliament of Moldova

Kadri Liik, Senior Policy Fellow, ECFR

Chaired by

Almut Möller, Head of Berlin Office & Senior Policy Fellow, ECFR

Moldova's political crisis: What's next? 

June 20, 8:30am – 9:30am at the ECFR Berlin Office – Entrance: Rosmarinstraße 1, 10117 Berlin 

On 7th of June a new temporary ruling coalition formed in Moldova, out of the pro-European ACUM party and the pro-Russian Socialist party. It marked the beginning of the one-week long deepest political crisis of Moldova since its independence. Despite ideological contradictions and rivalry, the coalition gathered with one aim – to free Moldova of Vladimir Plahotniuc’s control, the oligarch that captured the Moldovan state. However, he and his party (Democratic Party of Moldova, PDM) decided to stay. They staged a Constitutional Court decision that declared the newly voted government illegal. All the state buildings were blocked by riot police and pawns. After days of strong public resistance, strong leadership of the New Prime-minister Maia Sandu and unprecedent European reaction, as well as US and Russian support, the active phase of the crisis is now over. Although democracy won, there are many questions to be answered and challenges to be addressed. Why did Russian support a pro-European Government? What explains that the EU, the US and Russia aligned on a single position against an oligarch regardless of their geopolitical contradiction?

The government faces many challenges. One the one hand, it has to assure the cleansing of the political and justice systems, to loosen the oligarch’s grip on media, justice, and on at least one third of votes in Parliament. On the other hand, those decisions will need to rely on pro-Russian votes in the parliament, who, sooner or later, will want the favour to be returned. 

We will try to answer to these questions, explore the anatomy of the toughest Moldovan political crisis and will project future developments in Moldova as part of the Eastern Partnership. 

If you want to attend, please send an e-mail to [email protected] by June 19, 2019

The debate will be on the record and held in English.
Places are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis