Moldova's Squares Moment Revisited: The Short-Lived ACUM Alliance and the Realignment of Moldovan Party Politics

Abstract

The short-lived ACUM alliance that won nearly 27% of the vote in the 2019 parliamentary election presents a fascinating case study in numerous respects. First, ACUM constituted a rare case of a movement party of the centre(-right), emerging in the aftermath of the 2015-16 protests as an attempt at party-political institutionalization of protest - reminiscent in this regard of electoral projects that emerged in the aftermath of post-2010 "movements of the squares" in other European countries (from Greece and Spain to Ukraine). Second and in a related vein, ACUM attempted to implement a programme of "de-oligarchisation" in entering government and forming an unusual coalition with the Party of Socialists (PSRM) in 2019. !e short-lived ACUM-PSRM government and its collapse ultimately resulted in a realignment in which the anti-oligarchical/pro-oligarchical axis gave way to an entrenched geopolitical divide that characterizes Moldovan party politics to the present day. In addition, the collapse of the ACUM alliance in conjunction with the fall of the government has yielded electoral dividends for Maia Sandu's PAS with her subsequent rise (and re-election) to the presidency.