Prime Minister-designate Vasile Tofan has stepped back from his call for sweeping economic reforms modelled on Argentine President Javier Milei, saying Moldova does not need “shock therapy”.
Only a day earlier, Tofan had argued that the country required radical measures similar to those introduced in Argentina. After meeting President Maia Sandu, however, he acknowledged that the comparison had been poorly chosen.
“I admit that the parallel with Argentina was not the most appropriate. Fortunately, Moldova is not facing a crisis so deep that it would require shock therapy. Our task is not to dismantle the economy, but to relaunch it,” Tofan said after his meeting at the Presidency.
The statement marks a sharp retreat from the original Tofan reform plan, which had presented him as a candidate prepared to pursue major changes.
His proposals may have been controversial and insufficiently developed, but they at least suggested that the incoming prime minister intended to set out an agenda of his own.
That independent approach appears to have ended after the meeting at the Presidency. Tofan was effectively brought into line and reminded of the limits of his role within the existing political system.
The revised Tofan reform plan now appears far less ambitious than his initial statements suggested. This raises the prospect that the new prime minister could follow the same path as Alexandru Munteanu, leaving little political legacy and making few changes to the government’s broader course.
