Page 86 - bneMag Dec22

86 Opinion
bne December 2022
BALKAN BLOG
Moldova’s beleaguered pro-EU authorities
opt for radical and risky steps
Iulian Ernst in Bucharest
"It is always easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them,” once said Alfred Adler, the Austrian psychotherapist of the early 20th century.
The quotation from Adler, considered the first community psychologist, is very relevant for Moldova’s pro-EU authorities that are now in control of all state institutions. Indeed it is just as relevant for all post-communist regimes that seek
to carry out justice reforms using limited instruments and within the clear constraints of democracy.
Just as they suspended head anticorruption prosecutor Alexandr Stoianoglo more than a year ago based on superficial accusations sketched overnight by one of their MPs (the MP later admitted she drew them up based on media reports), President Maia Sandu’s Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) gives the impression that it now wants to ban overnight the Shor Party (and the Socialist Party too if possible), close down the website that published leaked conversations between Minister of Justice Sergei Litvinenco and his partners in the Superior Council of Prosecutors (CSP) and jail those involved in the plot for life.
The conversations published by Moldova-Leaks.com focus on how PAS representatives on the CSP coordinated to help their candidate win the contest to become the head anticorruption prosecutor. It is not clear whether their actions were critical for the result of the contest – but this doesn’t matter. It was not the contest for the head of the customs or environmental agency, nor for the manager of the public parks in Chisinau (pretty important positions as well), but for the person who was supposed to lead the national fight against corruption.
Veronica Dragalin, the candidate allegedly promoted by Litvinenco and his partners on the CSP, has the best possible background and credibility. But for some reason, this was not enough for Litvinenco who, by his actions, showed he was the first to doubt her merits. And why he never thought she would be able to win the position on merit alone is relevant for the way Moldova’s pro-EU authorities think and work.
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Protesters set up tents at an anti-government rally organised by the Shor Party in September.
Dragalin has not commented on the leaked conversations. But her mission against “perceived corruption” has just become more complicated.
She was selected by the same CSP that was “deeply restructured” (including by changing its functioning law) with the purpose of making it easier to give a negative evaluation of Stoianoglo and eventually allow his dismissal. At this moment Sandu is still evaluating whether this would be a wise step.
Adler’s work stressed the importance of nurturing feelings of belonging and striving for superiority.
His work would serve the authorities in Chisinau, who face street protests. Blaming Shor Party leader Ilan Shor is the most obvious and easiest thing to do – and Dragalin is taking steps to dismantle the organisation behind the weekly protests in Chisinau. But this has its drawbacks (banning political parties is a shortcut to autocracy) and it is nowhere near enough to stop the protests. Sandu’s mission is to address those protesters who are not paid by Shor – and their number is increasing in direct proportion to the gas and electricity price.
First challenge: street protests
The thousands of people who gather on the streets of Chisinau and other cities each weekend, along with the leaked Telegram conversations that appear to reveal political control over the judiciary prompted the pro-EU authorities in Chisinau to take radical steps against opposition parties and figures that are seen as threats.
The government seeks to ban the Shor Party and scrutinise the financial affairs of all the collaborators of fugitive businessmen and politicians Shor and Vlad Plahotniuc, as well as the collaborators of Igor Chaika, the Russian business partner of former president Igor Dodon’s brother.
In separate developments that should in principle not be linked to the executive or legislative branches, or to