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Moldovan Prime Minister Alexandru Munteanu announced his resignation on Friday, putting an end to the pro-European government he led since last November.
โI 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,โ he wrote in a post on his Facebook page. โBut 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.โ
Moldovan President Maia Sandu appointed Munteanu to the premiership in November of last year. Both politicians backed policies geared toward facilitating the Eastern European countryโs speedy accession into the EU.
But Munteanuโs stint as head of the countryโs government was undermined by scandals that have rocked Moldovaโs ministries and state-owned enterprises.
Last month Dumitru Vangeli, head of the MOLDATSA civil aviation safety agency, was dismissed after his university diploma and pilotโs license was determined to be forged . On Thursday Ministry of Agriculture State Secretary Tatiana Nistoricฤ was detained on suspicion of bribery.
Vangeli publically denied the accusations, while Nistoricฤ has not yet commented on her case.
At the press conference following Munteanuโs resignation Sandu said she expected โgreater involvement in difficult decisions, a stronger public presence to listen to peopleโs concerns.โ She also pushed back against Munteanuโs statement implying that he had not been free to address the challenges the country faces.
โSpeculation that he wanted to combat abuses but was not permitted to do so is false,โ she said. โThe prime minister had a free hand to run the government as he saw fit.โ
The president also said she would hold consultations with party leaders next week in a bid to name the countryโs next prime minister, whom she said would also focus on pro-European policies. โMoldovaโs path remains unchanged: reforms and EU accession,โ she wrote on X.
Moldova was accepted as a candidate for EU accession in 2022, and last month the blocโs member countries voted in favor of opening the first cluster of accession negotiations with Chiศinฤu. 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 countryโs second-largest party.
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