The third factor of power established by the Presidential elections

Presidential elections in Moldova, carried out in the second round on November 13, have established a third political factor in the foreground in Moldova, in addition to the declared pro-European power, where Prime Minister Pavel Filip and Speaker Andrian Candu manifest themselves in the proscenium, and behind the curtain is the informal leader Vladimir Plahotniuc and President-elect Igor Dodon, who is the leader of the Socialists, a pro-Russian. Indeed, due to finishing on the second place of the presidential elections, Maia Sandu, president of PAS, became the leader of the pro-European opposition in Moldova through the prism of almost 48% of votes obtained.

However, the legitimacy given by the voting is not sufficient to establish a fact, a political truth. Of course, we have a candidate who went through her first electoral battle, came out with an honorable result, even if the lack of experience and training was seen with the naked eye. The major problem, once the elections have passed, is how Maia Sandu makes the most of this position, i.e. the vote, confidence and hopes she has catalyzed. And here are only two choices.

The easiest is to neglect it without acting for joining victory and consecration of the leader of the pro-European opposition in the political reality. Maia Sandu had already to come out publicly with the political project of the pro-European united right to announce the fight to win the parliamentary elections in November 2018 in the formula of an alliance / coalition / block, to establish, firstly, the solidarity and the political force of the pro-European right opposition, after that the possible alliances with those who supported her in the presidential runoff; or necessary boundaries.

The absence of the project and future political vision

The lack of a political project, a political vision and a future goal sends Maia Sandu in irrelevance as quicker, as the closest allies move forward one at a time as days go by. If she fails to establish even now a committed party structure, as PLDM, Maia Sandu and her party in the patching together stage are lost. The same fate will have PPDA, the other ally, if it departs from the project established by the voting on November 13 and its outcome. Unraveling this formula makes any project - and efforts to achieve it - to be totally unimportant.

Building a party is not a simple thing, it is known. All right pro-European leaders felt it on their own skin. Moreover, the absence of a previous electoral validation of PPDA and PAS, as their lack of structures makes PLDM administrative impact more apparent. Eventually, the role-playing is the relevant one, and Maia Sandu, based on the legitimacy achieved by the voting, has the power to put together the pieces on this political mosaic. I do not know how she will act. However, the anarchist-revolutionary wanderings of Andrei Nastase, reinstated as a politics guru on the set of his favorite television channel, is not helping, on the contrary, it shows the temptation of expanding individually again and lack of learned lessons from the presidential elections.

Voters have voted for the idea of Maia Sandu - a pro-European right-wing candidate

The absence of a political project, a vision and attitudes to devote the result from the presidential election is letting down the fact that Maia Sandu has not learned the lessons from the campaign. Without a professional team. without goals and a backbone of a pragmatic and realistic program, adapted to the reality of Moldova, without a mature positioning compared to the other two factors of power, especially against the pro-European declared government, Maia Sandu is doomed to failures. In addition, here combines the complete absence of a professional team for the campaign with the lack of proper lines of thought, adapted to the reality, after a thorough study of the results of the vote from November 13, at the sociological and political level.

Because Maia Sandu has no professional team for policy and campaign consultation, has no financial resources to hire such a team, has no confidence in such a team or is too stubborn to ever listening it. On the other hand, she is too influenced by pseudo-experts and third-string analysts and, more essentially, with their own agendas, plus that she had no chance of a professional filter that would show firstly the campaign's mistakes. And here it must be said very clearly: Maia Sandu could won easily these presidential elections with a more intense personal training, with a professional team, with some money which, however, would have come and, again, with a more active filter for the advises of the closest and loyal supporters, but not knowing, or away and with an established image instead of their own interests.

And the biggest mistake of the campaign is that she did not answer to the great subjects of political positioning on the realities from Moldova: strategic pro-European orientation, ideological resort of the right, association with the European People's Party, political pragmatism of clotting the right wing in Moldova to attract voters of all colors and shades. This caused the groping of voters who have voted for the idea of Maia Sandu - a pro-European right-wing candidate, no, unfortunately, for the substance of this candidate who has shown serious deficiencies of consistency and self-definition. Until the aspirational image and waiting perception from the votes of November 13 will not be decrypted and translated into the reality of a pragmatic program, to be addressed, the risk of repeating failure, but especially the absence of the expected character will translate into a return to the initial votes that Maia Sandu had before being nominated as the sole candidate of the right pro-European opposition.

Winter holidays close the opportunity window

Therefore, Maia Sandu may be anytime the leader of the right pro-European opposition of the presidential elections, which was extinguished like a flash in the pan by circumstantial character and transience of her presence in politics. A meteoric passage that has been used only once and is getting into irrelevancy faster than anyone expected. In addition, wasting hopes of hundreds of thousands of voters in Moldova and abroad.

However, approaching the winter holidays permanently close the opportunity window that Maia Sandu is still having. And, unfortunately, we see her either in complete silence on the medium-term draft or vocalizing still minor issues and marginal civic moralism typical for the pre-election period, themes that bring her back at 10-15% of  votes of intellectuals deeply inadequate for the real political life of Moldova.