CHISINAU, December 2. /TASS/. Moldova’s former Prime Minister Maia Sandu deliberately made her cabinet resign to have a chance to lead right-wing forces in the 2020 presidential election, Moldovan President Igor Dodon said in an interview with TASS.

"Neither the president nor the Party of Socialists wanted the ruling coalition to break up. We were ready to support the Sandu government but it turned out to be among the most inefficient ones in the country’s history," Dodon said, commenting on the collapse of a coalition that the pro-presidential Party of Socialists and the pro-EU ACUM bloc, headed by Sandu, had formed in June.

"There are many people who have experience working in non-governmental organizations and blogging but have no idea how a government operates," Dodon explained. According to him, the lack of experience, operational thinking and well-trained personnel led to constant reshuffles, economic and social difficulties. However, the prime minister was strongly reluctant to discuss cabinet reshuffles and changes in the government’s program with coalition partners and the president.

Dodon believes that had Sandu withdrawn amendments allowing her to name candidates to the prosecutor general’s position, which ran counter to the law, the crisis would have been prevented. "Following the cabinet’s resignation, I invited ACUM members for consultations on nominating a new prime minister, actually calling on them to start anew. But they refused once again," the Moldovan president pointed out.

In Dodon’s opinion, Sandu decided to step down after the November local election, which had pointed to a downward trend in the popularity of right-wing forces.

"She broke up the coalition without asking her team and ignoring the position of our foreign partners both in the West and the East, who had supported the ruling coalition when the country was going through a tough time," the president noted.

Political crisis

A crisis, which resulted in the collapse of the country’s ruling coalition, concerned the election of a new prosecutor general, who, according to the Moldovan authorities, will play a key role in reforming the judicial system. The prime minister attempted to choose candidates herself but the Party of Socialists opposed the move, saying that it ran counter to the constitution. The cabinet eventually faced a vote of no confidence.

Sandu said at the Statutory Congress of the European People's Party (EPP) in Zagreb that she would bring Moldova back to the pro-EU path following the 2020 presidential election. She later called on Moldovan politicians to form a common front against Dodon to whom she had lost the 2016 presidential election.