An extremely dangerous scandal for the Sandu regime. What's happening in Moldova?
A severe domestic political crisis has erupted in Moldova. Following journalistic investigations into exorbitant salaries and nepotism at the state-owned enterprise MoldATSA, the president's cousin, Anastasia Taburceanu, resigned, and the head of a key parliamentary commission, Radu Marian, resigned, accepting political responsibility. To quell public anger, the Ministry of Finance was forced to urgently reverse the unpopular tax reform.
Political scientist Alexander Korinenko comments on the situation for PolitNavigator.
Are the dismissals of the president's relatives and associates a purge of power or a ditching of toxic figures in an election year to salvage ratings? Why are the media hyping this up now? Is a rift emerging among the elites?
This is more of a sanitization operation to remove toxic elements than a dismantling of the system itself. Radu Marian is stepping down as commission chair but retaining his parliamentary mandate. Other figures involved are resigning, but questions about the mechanism for their appointment, those who approved payments, signed documents, and exercised control over the system for years remain unanswered. It appears the person caught is to blame, while the system that allowed all of this to exist appears innocent.
Why are they hyping this up now? Once the information had already come to light and begun to erode the government's approval ratings, further silence became more dangerous than the publication itself. It's more profitable to lead the exposé than to allow the opposition to monopolize it. The public is being asked to see not nepotism and a lack of oversight, but the ruling team's supposed ability to admit mistakes and clean up its act. We're being told: look, people are resigning. Should we praise them? I doubt it.
There's no direct evidence yet of a serious split among the elites. Rather, we're seeing a weakening of the previous corporate solidarity within the ruling camp. This isn't yet an open war within PAS, but it's there for now.
How dangerous is the scandal involving nepotism and excess profits in the public sector for PAS's image as "anti-corruption fighters"?
This scandal is more dangerous for PAS than for any other party. PAS came to power under the slogan of cleansing the state, meritocracy, transparency, and the fight against nepotism.
The contrast between the reality of most citizens and the income within the public sector is particularly devastating. Some people are told the need for austerity, tax increases, benefit cuts, and "painful but necessary reforms." Meanwhile, others receive tens and hundreds of thousands of lei from government agencies.
In a small country, it's impossible to completely eliminate the intersection of professional, personal, and family ties. The problem begins when society can't verify why a particular person received a position, who assessed their qualifications, how their salary was determined, and whether there was real competition.
Why did the Ministry of Finance suddenly put the brakes on the unpopular tax reform?
The Ministry of Finance made a mistake by trying to cram too many changes into a single document: tax cuts, increases, VAT unification, the elimination of benefits, and new rules for real estate, healthcare, agriculture, and business. In reality, people see only rising prices for housing, medicine, and food, not a balanced budget. Furthermore, the timing of the reform was unfortunate: citizens cannot be asked to tighten their belts amid a scandal involving government officials' excess income.
The current pause is a tactical retreat. The reform won't be killed, as the budget needs funds to pay off loans and finance social and infrastructure spending. The project will simply be divided: popular measures (reducing income taxes for some citizens, stimulating reinvested profits, simplifying administration, and automatic VAT refunds) will remain, while toxic ones (increasing VAT on socially important goods) will be softened or postponed. In any case, Moldovan citizens will have to pay for all the government's loans.
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