In Moldova, things remain uncertain. It is an electoral year, and it is weary, ambiguous, and confusing. It is very different from other electoral years. It’s a year with a lot of harshness, pressures, tensions, and unclear rules to follow.

Until recently, the Ministry of Justice had 47 officially registered political parties. Now, there are 48 parties. Andrian Candu, the godson of Vladimir Plahotniuc, former leader of the Democratic Party, registered a new political party – Pro Moldova.

This political vehicle, which is both ambitious and scandalous, was launched in February following the internal struggles and splits within the Democratic Party. It was created after the Democratic Party lost power in government, after Plahotniuc fled from Moldova and former Prime Minister Pavel Filip took the leadership of the party.

On February 19, six deputies of the Democratic Party announced that they were leaving the party and forming the Pro Moldova parliamentary group, which they undertook to transform into a political party. On June 18, they achieved their goal. 

Four months after the six deputies made their announcement about leaving the Democratic faction, the parliamentary group succeeded in splitting in two the parliamentary faction of the Democratic Party and end the existing parliamentary majority of the Democratic and the Socialist Parties in governing.

The group grew into a parliamentary party with 14 seats, as many as the Action and Solidarity Party has. The group outnumbers the Democratic Party by one mandate, the Truth and Dignity Platform Party by three seats, and the Shor Party by seven seats. Only the Socialist Party remained ahead with 37 seats. However, Pro Moldova managed to outshine it by ruining its parliamentary majority with the Democratic Party and to take control of the parliament.

President Igor Dodon repeatedly accused Candu of cooperating with Plahotniuc and playing Plahotniuc’s game. Dodon claimed that Pro Moldova is a project paid for by Plahotniuc to destroy the ruling coalition between the Socialist and Democratic Parties, and thus save himself from the conviction in the case of the stolen billion, in which the Prosecutor General’s Office recently declared him the main beneficiary.

In Moldovan politics, dirty money has great circulation and decision-making power at the Presidency, in the Government, and in the Parliament.

The case of the black plastic bag that Dodon accepted from Plahotniuc marked the apogee. Why didn’t Dodon maintain the anti-oligarchic alliance formed with the ACUM Bloc if he really meant to fight corruption, state theft, and money laundering? If Dodon intended to arrest Plahotniuc, to bring him back to Moldova and put him to prison, why he formed another alliance with Diacov and Filip (former Plahotniuc’s colleagues) and removed Maia Sandu, who certainly would have accepted neither Plahotniuc’s money nor his games. If Dodon accepted Plahotniuc’s money (as we can see from the videos), he must now accept his games as well, and Plahotniuc has very strict rules in his political games, especially if they involve money. 

Dodon knows that he will have to pay excessively for all the dishonest business they did with Plahotniuc when they ruled Moldova together in their interests. The difference is that Plahotniuc took care to get “compromising materials” on Dodon, while Dodon forgot that he is in politics, and in Moldovan politics, you have to be either clean or careful.

Dodon was neither clean nor careful, and today he is angry. The Socialists, alongside with the Democrats, have lamentably lost the duel with Candu and Pro Moldova. Dodon and Filip (Prime Minister Pavel Filip during the Democratic Party Government) lost the parliamentary majority. Now, they risk losing the Government as well.

In his first press conference, Candu stated that Pro Moldova is not the result of score-settling between them and the government, as some voices are trying to present. According to Candu, the party emerged in the context of a moral, health, social, and political crisis that brought Moldova to collapse. He mentioned that Moldova would need a different party, for a radical change and a reset of things in the country, a reset of the political class.

“From today onwards, nothing related to the political life in Moldova will be achieved without Pro Moldova. And not only… ” says Candu.

If we take into account that out of 47 parties we do not have any doctrinaire (in the classical sense), the figure seems exaggerated in relation to a population of 3 million people. Moreover, these parties are subsidized from the budget, and the vast majority are just decorative, with conspiratorial roles in politics, the simple citizen having nothing to gain from it.

In thirty years, parties from all political sides, from the “right” and the “left”, have ruled the government and the situation changed from bad to worse, which means that there is still a need for a reset of the political class. However, there is a need for a committed party dedicated to the national interests and ideals of Moldova.

Pro Moldova will be a center-right party. It is an advantage that it has overthrown the Socialist-Democratic Parties governing coalition and pleads for the overthrow of the Chicu Government.

It is also very good that Pro Moldova has become an anti-Dodon center of power. However, it remains unclear how Pro Moldova will fight Dodon.

Will Pro Moldova, a center-right party, enter presidential elections with its own candidate? Who will this party favor? At the same time, the Democratic Party is center-left, and the mechanical transition from the Democratic Party to Pro Moldova does not entail its involuntary change.