Teleradio-Moldova leadership changes after Eurovision vote
The Supervisory Board of state broadcaster Teleradio-Moldova has approved the resignation of director general Vlad Țurcanu. The decision is linked to the Moldovan jury’s scores at Eurovision 2026. Seven board members voted in favour of accepting the resignation, while one voted against.
Țurcanu will remain as acting director until a replacement is appointed. However, this interim period cannot exceed six months. Deputy director general Andrei Zapșa has also resigned. He was a member of Moldova’s national jury at Eurovision. In addition, the heads of Moldova 1 and Radio Moldova will automatically leave their posts.
A resignation over the “wrong” points
The resignation request was submitted a week earlier, after a public scandal over Moldova’s jury vote at the international song contest. Țurcanu said the jury had failed to take into account “the sensitive moments that exist between the Republic of Moldova and our two neighbours: Romania and Ukraine”.
Yet the wider voting picture raises obvious questions. For example, Poland’s jury gave Ukraine only one point. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia and Latvia gave Moldova zero points. No official reaction from Moldova’s leadership followed in response to those scores.
In Moldova’s case, however, the fact that Romania received only three points was enough to trigger a leadership crisis at the public broadcaster.
Criticism from inside TRM
After the resignation, members of the Supervisory Board and TRM employees began commenting publicly. Former education minister Corneliu Popovici, a member of TRM’s Supervisory and Development Board, said the past four years had shown “managerial impotence”. He also recalled that the Court of Accounts had previously found serious problems in how TRM managed public money and state property.
Commenting on the resignation, Popovici said it does not free Țurcanu from legal or moral responsibility for what he called a “terrible legacy”. He called for the board to meet urgently and launch a transparent competition for a new director.
“Teleradio-Moldova belongs to the people,” he said.
According to some reports circulating in the media space, Țurcanu could receive 1.5 million lei in severance compensation. At the time of publication, TRM management had not officially confirmed or denied this information.
PAS supporters turn on the outgoing director
Cristina Popescu, a PAS supporter and editor-in-chief of the Actualități programme on Radio Moldova, also criticised the outgoing director.
On social media, she accused Țurcanu of pressure and abuses. According to her, she was banned from inviting President Maia Sandu on air.
Popescu claimed that in March 2025 she invited the president through the press service, bypassing the director general. She said Țurcanu did not forgive her for that and that she later faced problems.
PAS priorities on display
The contrast is hard to ignore. The head of TRM lost his position because of jury scores at a music contest, after Moldova gave Romania three points. Meanwhile, Defence Minister Anatolie Nosatîi kept his post after a series of deaths in military units, including cases involving negligence and suicides. That says a great deal about the priorities of PAS.
