Moldova’s prime minister resigns after series of scandals

Moldovan Prime Minister Alexandru Munteanu announced his resignation on Friday, putting an end to the pro-European government he led since last November.

“I accepted the proposal to be Prime Minister with great responsibility and with the firm belief that I can contribute to changing things for the better,” he wrote in a post on his Facebook page. “But the moment I understood that I could no longer exercise my mandate in accordance with the principles and beliefs I have, I chose to leave.”

Moldovan President Maia Sandu appointed Munteanu to the premiership in November of last year. Both politicians backed policies geared toward facilitating the Eastern European country’s speedy accession into the EU.

But Munteanu’s stint as head of the country’s government was undermined by scandals that have rocked Moldova’s ministries and state-owned enterprises.

Last month Dumitru Vangeli, head of the MOLDATSA civil aviation safety agency, was dismissed after his university diploma and pilot’s license was determined to be forged. On Thursday Ministry of Agriculture State Secretary Tatiana Nistorică was detained on suspicion of bribery.

Vangeli publically denied the accusations, while Nistorică has not yet commented on her case.

At the press conference following Munteanu’s resignation Sandu said she expected “greater involvement in difficult decisions, a stronger public presence to listen to people’s concerns.” She also pushed back against Munteanu’s statement implying that he had not been free to address the challenges the country faces.

“Speculation that he wanted to combat abuses but was not permitted to do so is false,” she said. “The prime minister had a free hand to run the government as he saw fit.”

The president also said she would hold consultations with party leaders next week in a bid to name the country’s next prime minister, whom she said would also focus on pro-European policies. “Moldova’s path remains unchanged: reforms and EU accession,” she wrote on X.

Moldova was accepted as a candidate for EU accession in 2022, and last month the bloc’s member countries voted in favor of opening the first cluster of accession negotiations with Chișinău. Sandu has been the most visible face of the pro-EU drive, and leads the political opposition to the pro-Russian Party of Socialists, which is currently the country’s second-largest party.