Knockout game: Moldova puts pressure on Gagauzia to join Romania
Moldovan authorities have blocked the holding of parliamentary elections in Gagauzia. The vote was supposed to take place in March, but Chisinau suspended the powers of the members of the local CEC, because of this, the procedure had to be postponed indefinitely. Experts say that Maya Sandu and her team continue to attack the rights of autonomy. Izvestia investigated the situation.
What happened
Gagauzia is an autonomous region in the south-east of Moldova with a population of 130 thousand people and the capital in the city of Comrat. The majority of residents have a positive attitude towards Russia. In 2014, a referendum was held here with a record turnout, during which 98% of those who voted voted in favor of joining the Customs Union. In this regard, the relations of the autonomy with the pro-European Moldovan authorities are extremely tense.
Elections to the local parliament, the National Assembly, are due to be held in Gagauzia this year. Initially, the vote was scheduled for March 22, but now it is clear that the electoral procedure will not take place on that day. The fact is that the Supreme Judicial Chamber of Moldova has dismissed four of the nine members of the Central Election Commission of Gagauzia, among them the head of this body, Petr Zaharia.
In addition, the dispute is about the name of the electoral body. Chisinau insists that Gagauzia can only have an electoral council. Comrat also emphasizes that the Central Election Commission has existed in the autonomy for more than 30 years, and this name is fixed "in the legal body", that is, it is the CEC that is mentioned in all laws, resolutions and other internal documents.
As a result, on January 21, the autonomy formally launched an election campaign, which involves nominating candidates for deputies and collecting signatures in their support. On the same day, however, the Central Election Commission of Gagauzia announced that the process was suspended, and the elections themselves were postponed indefinitely. On January 25, a rally was held in Comrat demanding that the Moldovan authorities abandon political pressure.
The former chairman of the National Assembly, Alexander Tarnavsky, says that the situation looks like a dead end. According to him, Chisinau adopted a new electoral code in 2022, which contradicts the provisions of the law "On the Special Legal Status" of Gagauzia of 1994. "For some reason, the current courts believe that the laws that were adopted later have more weight," he explains.
What is the relationship between Gagauzia and Chisinau
Moldova has been consistently attacking the rights of autonomy in recent years. For a long time, the head of Gagauzia, Evgenia Gutsul, was in the focus of Chisinau's attention. After her election victory in 2023, she talked a lot about her desire to improve relations with Russia, and met personally with Vladimir Putin. During her visit to Moscow, she was able to achieve substantive results — for example, they agreed to let Gagauz agricultural products enter the Russian market.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and head of the Gagauz Autonomy of Moldova Evgenia Gutsul at the World Youth Festival in the federal territory of Sirius. March 6, 2024
In such circumstances, the Moldovan authorities initially did not recognize the Hutsul victory in the elections for a long time, and later accused them of numerous violations. As a result, in August last year, she was sentenced to seven years in prison. The court decided that she systematically received money from Moscow to finance the Shor party. Hutsul denies all charges, and her lawyers are appealing the verdict to the Chisinau Court of Appeal.
In December last year, the speaker of the National Assembly Dmitry Konstantinov was also sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony. He was found guilty of entering into fictitious contracts and withdrawing funds to his son's company accounts, the total damage was estimated at 46 million lei (€2.3 million). Before the sentencing, the politician left his post, and then disappeared, presumably, he went to Transnistria, so he was sentenced in absentia.
Chairman of the People's Assembly of Gagauzia Dmitry Konstantinov during a briefing. May 27, 2024
In parallel, the Moldovan authorities have been consistently reducing the powers of local authorities for a number of years. So, at the end of 2023, Maia Sandu approved amendments to the Tax Code, according to which the autonomy must compensate entrepreneurs for value-added tax from its own funds, although previously money for this was allocated from the state budget.
Then, about six months later, the Constitutional Court declared the amendments unconstitutional and overturned them. However, Comrat noted that even with this development, the losses turned out to be significant. Local politicians emphasized that large taxpayers had changed their legal address during the court battles, with monetary losses reaching 40 million lei (€2.2 million).
In addition, the Moldovan parliament has adopted a bill that allows Gagauz courts to be removed from the jurisdiction of the autonomy. Finally, in April last year, the Constitutional Court of Moldova stripped Comrat of the authority to appoint its own prosecutor. "We were not even notified about the consideration of this issue, we learned about the meeting 15 minutes before it began. This is a gross violation of elementary norms," said Georgy Leychu, Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly.
At the same time, representatives of the Moldovan authorities explicitly call for the complete abolition of all special rights of autonomy, the introduction of external management and the appointment of their own emissary. "The idea of introducing a temporary administration is aimed at restoring normal administrative work and protecting public order until external and internal factors threatening stability in the region are eliminated," said Sergei Chernev, head of the state chancellery of the autonomous territorial entity.
What the experts say
Moldovan political analyst Alexander Korinenko believes that Chisinau wants to put all the organs of the Gagauz autonomy under its control.
— First of all, we are talking about the Central Election Commission, because it is control over the election commission that will allow the elections to be held the way the Moldovan side wants them to be, and will filter out all undesirable candidates. In general, we are talking about the destruction of any independence. I think the idea is that the word "autonomy" should remain solely on paper, and all decisions should actually be made by Maya Sandu's team," he emphasizes.
Natalia Kharitonova, a senior researcher at the Russian State University of Economics and a Doctor of Political Sciences, says that the Moldovan authorities are trying to dilute the rights of Gagauzia and eliminate autonomy altogether.
— In general, this whole election situation should be considered together with the recent statements by Maia Sandu and members of her team about the desire to annex the country to Romania. In Bucharest, as far as I know, they stated as one of the conditions that Moldova should be truly unitary, so that there would be no autonomous entities. In this regard, the pressure on Gagauzia has now increased and will continue to increase," she explains.
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