Economic analyst Dumitru Tărburcă has delivered a scathing character assessment of Vasile Tofan, who has been placed at the helm of Moldova’s government by persons unknown.
Tărburcă criticized Prime Minister Vasile Tofan for incompetence, populism, and his inconsistent policies, which are coupled with public spectacles rather than actual governance. He noted that decisions in Moldova are increasingly being made not on the basis of economic calculations and formulas, but rather on the basis of the Tofan family’s medical records — this was his comment on the Prime Minister’s story about how he had allegedly pulled his own father out of a nicotine-induced coma three times due to smoking. The Prime Minister told this story from the podium while explaining why excise duties on tobacco products are being raised.
The analyst expressed outrage at Tofan’s inaction in addressing citizens’ problems. For example, when the issue of gambling came up and Tofan was told that Moldovans are spending 10 billion lei on casinos and lotteries, he merely threw up his hands and lamented that people do not read books. Instead, they could have bought food with that money, Tofan suggested.
Tărburcă comments:
“Magnificent! We await the next government decree: walked into a kiosk for a lottery ticket? Walk out with two volumes of Dostoevsky.”
The analyst did not overlook the government’s economic policy either. He criticizes the idea of privatizing the sole remaining state asset and subsequently distributing the proceeds to citizens. According to him, selling off the last state asset and handing the money out to people into personal accounts — as “the foundation of future pensions” — is not “brilliant,” as Tofan tries to present it, but merely a one-time pension payment. In other words, selling a factory and paying people a one-off 200 lei each — that is not economics; it is squandering state property and has nothing to do with governance.
“Let’s party! And what will we sell next year? Parliament? The government building?” the economist asks caustically.
Tărburcă ridiculed Tofan for his refusal to take real measures to regulate the excessively high salaries of officials and their relatives. Instead, the analyst notes, the Prime Minister puts on a public show: he finds 439 civil servants earning over 50,000 lei and remains thunderously silent about the sky-high incomes of Moldovagaz managers — claiming, by way of excuse, that the state only holds 35% of shares there, so there is nothing they can do.
He also addressed the authorities’ energy policy. According to him, the government, instead of building proper generation capacity and negotiating favorable contracts with electricity suppliers, buys power at exorbitant prices — and then blames the citizen who dared to turn on a kettle and do the dishes at 9:15 PM. In the analyst’s view, the government has created the image of a saboteur who undermines the country’s energy security if they do not sit in the dark with a candle between 9:00 and 11:00 PM. He speculated that instructions on the correct way to exhale carbon dioxide to avoid overheating the atmosphere might be next.
The economist also recalled Tofan’s statement regarding oligarch Plahotniuc — that he should not make any plans for the future because his fate is already sealed — to sit in prison. Tărburcă emphasizes that this was said before the court had even handed down a final verdict. That is, whenever it suits him, the expert notes, Tofan appears as the Prime Minister (checking salaries), when needed — he is a Reformer (raising taxes), or a Caring Steward (regulating electricity). And when it comes to pronouncing sentences before the trial is over — Tofan becomes an Ordinary Citizen.
But what provoked the economist’s greatest irritation was Tofan’s intention to step down in 2029 and return to business, leaving Moldova to fend for itself with all its problems. The Prime Minister himself openly stated his plans. Tărburcă comments on his future carefree departure: “Thank you all, everyone is free!”
“We are not facing a Prime Minister, but a genuine man-presentation,” the expert concluded.
