You're reading: Moldova’s feuding pro-EU coalition may face no-confidence vote

CHISINAU - Moldova's government may face a vote of no-confidence and potentially collapse this week after bitter public feuding among leaders of the ruling pro-Europe coalition.

The crisis in the former Soviet republic, which the European Union sees as a regional beacon of progress despite its poverty, has set Prime Minister Vlad Filat and other leaders of the Alliance for European Integration at each other’s throats.

The three-party Alliance has been working to integrate the tiny landlocked state, bordering Ukraine and EU-member Romania, into the European mainstream since it ousted communists from power in 2009.

But rivalries, personal feuds and conflicting business interests among the Alliance’s leaders have now burst to the surface. Commentators say the crisis, if it continues, could endanger the signing of a political association agreement with the EU at the end of the year.

With politicians beset by reports of corruption, scandal and misuse of office, matters are expected to come to a head when parliament convenes on Thursday and Friday.

Filat’s partners in the Alliance, centre-left politician Marian Lupu and former acting president Mihai Ghimpu, both want him to step down – a move which could trigger an early election.

They say Filat, who leads the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), provoked the crisis by publicly denouncing the founding coalition agreement on Feb. 13 and accusing his allies of corruption, playing into the hands of opposition communists.

With no real improvements to living standards and with the fragile economy weakened by falling European demand for major Moldovan products such as wine, the communists – the biggest single faction in parliament – remain strong in the countryside and may feel they have much to gain from a snap election.

Commentators say the crisis has more to do with business rivalries and personality clashes than policy differences. Filat, who has himself declared business interests, has bickered openly with Moldova’s wealthiest entrepreneur, Vlad Plahotniuc.

Plahotniuc, Lupu’s main financial backer, quit last week as first deputy speaker of parliament under pressure from Filat.

Britain, Sweden and Poland, with an eye to signature of a political association between the EU and Moldova at the end of the year, have urged the erstwhile allies to get back to the negotiating table and work out a new deal among themselves.

But Lupu and Ghimpu instead say they want a ‘zero option’ in which Filat steps down and Lupu leaves the post of speaker to allow negotiations to be held on a new Alliance agreement.

Lupu said it was clear the government no longer commanded a majority and that his Democratic party would try to initiate a vote of no-confidence if Filat refused to go.

“If Filat considers that keeping him in power is more important anything else on earth, then we will do everything we can to stop the ambitions of a single person leading Moldova into crisis,” Lupu told reporters on Wednesday.

The three Alliance parties hold a total of 58 seats in the 101-seat parliament. With the communists holding 34 seats, the Filat government could easily lose a vote of no-confidence if his allies deserted him in parliament on Thursday or Friday.

If the government did fall, Filat would soldier on in an interim government until President Nicolae Timofti was able to get his new candidate accepted – a process which itself could take several weeks. Three unsuccessful attempts to get a new candidate accepted by lawmakers would mean a snap election. (Writing by Richard Balmforth; Editing by Louise Ireland)