With the IMF in town and the majority of the country against them, the sinister coalition led by Pavel “Mr. Midnight” Filip is putting a brave face on things. Yesterday the parliament published yet another piece of worthless paper.

My translation:

The document laid out by the Moldovan legislature states their intention to promote reforms demanded by their development partners [foreign financiers], to consolidate the country’s path towards Europe, to create optimal conditions for foreign investment, and to approve a slate of bills to reform the banking sector.

Meanwhile, Igor Dodon, leader of the Socialist Party, was having none of it.

My translation of his words to the parliament:

Yep, you see how a party which won 17% of the votes [the Democratic Party] now controls 60 deputies [out of 101 total]. I cannot even begin to guess what kind of modernization they will actually do. Their partners insist that they do something so now they’re taking steps to make it look like they’re instituting reforms. But you all know that this business will not last. The civic forum [coalition of protest groups] came with their proposals and all of you still voted in Poelelungi anyway. Go ahead, and keep rolling your tank onward! We will prove that the government is a captive of the Democratic Party by now walking out of the chamber in protest.”

And that, boys and girls, is just what they did.

Meanwhile, Deutsche Welle and the fantastic Vitalie Calagureanu report the latest poll.

My translation.

[According to the latest poll] if parliamentary elections would take place next Sunday, only four parties would have seats in the legislature: Our Party with 19.9%, the Socialist Party with 12.8%, the DA Party with 8.3% and the Action and Solidarity Party led by former Education Minister Maia Sandu with 6.2%.
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According to the polling firm, the parties currently in the governing coalition would not receive enough votes to pass the 6% threshold for a seat in the parliament.

Yep. Right now, the rats running the government are trying to run out the clock until March when the president (who is elected by parliament) will come to the end of his term. The current president, Nicolae Timofti, is effectively an opponent of the Democratic Party-Communist Party ruling coalition and already blocked the nomination of Vlad Plahotniuc for the position of Prime Minister.

If the rats can get their own man in as president, they might be able to hang onto power a while longer. If their shaky coalition cracks, it could lead to parliamentary elections which obviously will end quite badly for them.

With the protesters and opposition parties pressing from one side and the global bankers pushing from the other side, it’s only a matter of time before this farce ends, one way or the other.

Note: all this talk of tanks is due to shadowy oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc constantly warning people that if they vote for the pro-Russian parties (“Our Party” and the Socialists) then it won’t be long before Russian tanks are rumbling down the streets of Chisinau. It’s now become something of a joke nationwide to refer to every threat by saying it’s a “tank”.