Moldova’s Cabinet of Ministers took stock of its first year of activity on Monday, 8 August. Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița and ministers talked about how they have met the challenges and reviewed the achievements of the government. At the same time, during the presentation of the report “One year of government in solidarity with the people”, the Prime Minister said that “a hard winter with many challenges awaits us”.

Thus, Ziarul de Gardă asked several experts about what the government has managed to do in its first year in office, how it has fulfilled its electoral promises and how life in Moldova has changed with the inauguration of the government led by Natalia Gavrilița.

“We must be tolerant with the Government”

Dorin Vaculovschi, IDIS “Viitorul” expert on labour market and social policy issues, says that the biggest achievement of the Gavrilița Government is, first of all – bringing the country out of international isolation.

“Moldova has become a candidate state for EU membership. Various attempts have been made to reform the justice system and social protection. However, at the same time, all these initiatives have been accompanied by various challenges, protests, which I do not understand. The contract with Gazprom is highly criticised. I don’t know if the socialists would have negotiated a better contract. The only concession Dodon, Chicu or Shor could have made would have been to turn Moldova into a Russian governorate, and “goodbye European Union, independence and sovereignty and hello Soviet mess and mentality that we cannot escape”. So, from that point of view, I welcome the efforts of the current government. The much-criticised Andrei Spînu, it seems to me, is doing a lot. The Russians are very complicated to deal with, especially in the context of events in Ukraine. Look at what happens, they promise one thing, agree to evacuate the wheat and the next day bomb Odessa. How can you talk to and trust these people?” says Dorin Vaculovschi.

As for the weaknesses of the current executive, the expert would like to see “a lot of visibility and communication”.

“They are losing the competition in terms of relations with the opposition. They are to some extent isolated. Compared to the opposition, who even coming with unfounded accusations, they are visible. More people believe these accusations than the efforts the current government is making. They should be more vocal, more propagation actions, collaboration with the press…”, stressed the IDIS “Viitorul” expert.

Asked whether citizens live better after one year, the expert said that this was not possible primarily because of the energy crisis.

“In the situation when the prices of energy resources increase, clear thing that this will trigger certain inflationary processes. As you know, the highest inflation in the countries of the region was recorded in Moldova, because we inherited an economic conjuncture, we are a vulnerable economy. A healthy economy is not created for a year (…) We cannot say that the income of the population has not increased. The government is interested in increasing welfare. But we need to see what we do about the challenges, which are more external than internal. These challenges should be seen as a shock that we have to face, because the shock is usually short-lived – a year, maximum two, but then everything will return to normal, as was the case with fuel prices. We have to be tolerant (…). If we start protesting now, we will go back to a much worse situation, to underdevelopment and a subsistence economy, which will continue to drive young people out of Moldova and undermine economic development,” Vaculovschi says.

“At least until now, PAS has not been in solidarity with the citizens, with the budget workers”

On the other hand, economic expert Viorel Gîrbu notes as “an achievement” the changes in public institutions, which, according to him, can be seen as an “institutional reform”.

“However, on the reform side, PAS has not been very vocal, we have not seen some dramatic reforms that really justify the agenda or the electoral message that it came with previously. Before coming to power, arguing that everything is bad and corrupt, but what PAS has done to combat these schemes is not clear, I find it hard to come up with conclusive examples of this. Basically, PAS has put itself in control of all authorities. I would expect them to do what Saakashvili did when he came to power. To make a quick reform, for half a year, which would be different from Moldova’s previous experience”, says Viorel Gîrbu.

According to the expert, for now the reforms are “cosmetic”, with reorganisations and new people, but he stresses that reorganisation is meaningless in itself if it does not produce results.

“I don’t know what the results are: we have galloping inflation, premises for a worsening of the situation in the next period, but the response of the authorities at the moment is not clear (…). Past data show a stagnation of the budgetary sector. Wages, in real terms, have fallen. At least until now, PAS has not been in solidarity with the citizens, with the budget workers. In the social sector, the most ignored category has been families with children. There have been some adjustments, but that category has not been targeted by PAS, the increases in allowances have been minimal.

Although there was a strong social message about increasing pensions, in real terms this increase was not seen so much, the fault being inflation. But let’s not forget that with inflation comes increased budget revenues, so they could have redistributed. I’m talking about phenomena that are still manifesting themselves over time, so maybe PAS hasn’t had time to show its presence (…) As for inflation, we only hear statements, not certain results or control”, said Gîrbu.

The expert also criticised the composition of the Executive, which, according to him, had taken a “retinue” of civil society representatives, which would have tilted the public discourse in favour of the government.

“It has put them in government and by doing so has neutralised any criticism that may come from non-governmental organisations. He has created a certain orchestra that falsely presents itself as representatives of civil society and falsely characterises the PAS government, but they are still there. PAS has broken this demarcation line between civil society and the government and, in fact, has corrupted civil society in order to secure a certain support and a false image from those who should be critical of the government (…) PAS has corrupted part of the elite, of the most visible representatives of civil society, has put them in government and is creating a false image of those processes and phenomena that are taking place in Moldova”, says the economic expert.

“Some representatives of civil society lobby this political party and say that inflation in Moldova is like this because we import it. This is not correct. Only in Turkey inflation is higher than ours. This situation deserves a professional analysis, not some theoretical references to possible factors. PAS did not manage this situation and did not give an answer about the causes, and if you can’t diagnose it correctly, you can’t treat the disease (…) That’s what it does, it washes its hands that there are phenomena that PAS is not responsible for. Besides inflation, the monetary policy of the National Bank is aggressive towards the business environment (…) Expectations, however, are quite negative about how the national economy will look in the coming period, and this is attributable to PAS”, Viorel Gîrbu adds.

Another problematic dimension, according to the expert, remains access to data. He argues that PAS has not increased the transparency of budget management.

“We have a public finance management system, but there is no visibility. Indicators reported somewhere, on the pages of ministries you don’t see them. It is a tool that formally exists but is not applied. And in the absence of this tool it is hard to understand what the ministries are doing. Not much has changed in terms of transparency and monitoring of government activity, PAS has done nothing.”

“This government lacks more coherence and I think it has not yet set its priorities”

Political expert Veaceslav Berbeca said that the first year in office of the Gavriliță government was difficult “because the energy crisis was overlaid by the war in Ukraine and now by inflation”. However, the expert points to the “many electoral promises” which “did not help with so many problems”.

“In general, they managed to deal with the big problems we faced, with the energy crisis, with the refugee problem. We should not forget that we managed to achieve the status of EU candidate country, which is largely due to the efforts of the current government,” says Veaceslav Berbeca.

On the other hand, the expert points out that “there are a number of issues that need to be addressed”.

“This government has to operate on a round-the-clock ‘fire-fighting’ basis, and that stems from the fact that many problems come from the past. At the same time, I think that this government lacks more coherence and that it has not yet set its priorities. Here I would also refer to “human capital”, where I think there are several things that should be changed (…). From this point of view it is a very big problem from a policy-making perspective. The current government has not yet decided which are the main areas to focus on. When you promise a lot, the expectations are very high and the results modest…”, according to Berbeca.

Members of the Moldovan Government, led by Natalia Gavrilița, presented on Monday, August 8, the report of one year of activity, entitled “One year of government in solidarity with the people”. Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița spoke about the achievements of the government she leads and the plans they are working on. Members of the Cabinet of Ministers also spoke about their successes in each area and about future projects.