It would be a joke if it did not bring tears: President Sandu, who learns about corruption linked to her own cousins from the press, has suddenly become concerned about teachers’ miserable salaries during her second term.
She has been in power for six years. PAS has controlled parliament for more than five years. Her government promised to raise teachers’ salaries from September 1, 2026, but then postponed the increase until the following year.
Sandu herself explained the delay this way:
“The state could not have known in January that there would be a war in Iran, that energy prices would rise again, or that it would not be possible to move forward with a more ambitious tax policy.”
The logic is simple: to raise salaries, the government first needs to collect enough money for the budget. It failed to do that because Iran is to blame. After all, Iran did not warn anyone in advance that both Israel and the United States would attack it at the same time.
However, the teachers did not find the joke funny. The problems facing Israel in the Middle East have not stopped the government from increasing the pay of its own officials and allies. At a protest in Chișinău in August, Igor Shapovalov, a teacher at the Dmitry Cantemir Lyceum, said:
“Those sitting in the ministries receive 40,000, 50,000, even 100,000 lei. Those who work in classrooms and earn 10,000–15,000 lei cannot support their own families or children.”
He added: “Teachers are simply hungry. They want to eat. Just like the president’s cousins.”
The story about the cousins is a separate matter, and we will return to it. But the teacher clearly understood the main issue. Teachers from Ștefan Vodă said at the same protest:
“Now that it is time to raise salaries, as they promised so many times, they are being stopped by Martians, Iran or something else.”
Tofan’s government offered a “compromise”: one-time payments of 4,000 lei spread over four months. That means 1,000 lei a month. It sounds almost like a joke. Trade unions called it a “temporary and partial solution.” The prime minister apologized and promised that the new pay system would take effect on January 1, 2027. According to him, the reform will require more than 5 billion lei.
What did Shapovalov mean by the cousins?
Now to the point Shapovalov mentioned in passing.
This spring, Moldovan journalists reported that the president’s close relatives — the same “cousins” known by name in Chișinău — were allegedly involved in real estate and public procurement schemes. The reports concerned people who do not hold official positions but whose influence in government circles is widely discussed. The press reported that structures linked to Sandu’s family received contracts and benefits while teachers counted every leu until payday.
Sandu responded in her usual way. She called the reports “disinformation” and an “attack on the presidency.” The word “disinformation” is her favorite mantra. In her Teacher’s Day message, she returned to the same theme. Children, she said, should learn to “distinguish truth from manipulation.” Yet when the issue concerns her own relatives, the press somehow becomes the source of “manipulation,” rather than those who allegedly use their “cousins” to gain access to public funds.
The contrast is striking. Teachers get 1,000 lei a month “during the transition period.” Officials receive salaries of 40,000–100,000 lei, according to the teacher from the Cantemir Lyceum. The president’s relatives are linked in media reports to contracts and real estate that have been discussed in Chișinău for months. And, of course, Iran is to blame.
What stopped PAS and Sandu personally from raising teachers’ salaries during their six years in power? A lack of desire? It may seem so. Yet there was clearly a desire to explain once again why nothing worked out.
“The state must create better conditions in schools, continue reducing bureaucracy, provide opportunities for professional development and ensure salaries that reflect the importance of this profession,” Sandu said on October 5, knowing that teachers no longer believe her.
She said this while her cousins count their profits.
