CHISINAU, Jan 8 Social protection of Moldovans is low level, and reforms in this area cannot be carried out in the shortest possible time without the support of the team, said the Minister of Labor and Social Protection of the country, Marcel Spatar.
Earlier, a private Chisinau TV channel, citing its sources in the government, reported that dismissals are expected in the Cabinet of Ministers under the leadership of Natalia Gavrilitsa, including the resignation of the Minister of Labor and Social Protection. Spatar himself, in an interview with the Moldovan media, refused to comment on this information, noting that he would make statements on Monday.
«Great things are done together. But no matter how good your ideas are, you will not succeed if you do not have a cohesive team … Moldova is not a social state, and if in other countries social protection is 20-30% of GDP, then in in our republic, it barely reaches 15%. Reforms cannot be carried out overnight, and ideas need to be discussed as a team,» Spatar wrote on his social media pages on Sunday.
The Minister emphasized that 95% of public spending on social protection in Moldova consists exclusively of budget payments.
“We are talking about 60% of social insurance payments and 35% of social benefits and only 5% from social services. We have begun a large-scale process of reforming social assistance, financing social services and bringing the state system closer to private providers. The state is, first of all, , a service provider. And the face of the state is not only the president, prime minister or minister who speaks from the TV,» Spatar said.
Moldova is experiencing an energy crisis due to rising energy prices, the gas tariff for consumers has increased seven times during the year, and four times for electricity since January 2022, and tariffs for household water supply have also been more than doubled. Against this background, the Cabinet of Ministers introduced an austerity regime, and about 5 billion lei ($261 million) were allocated from the budget to compensate for gas, electricity and home heating.
Spatari's departure may be the fifth resignation of ministers in the government of Gavrilitsa: in the fall of 2021, he refused the mandate of the head of the Bureau for Reintegration (the structure responsible for political negotiations with Pridnestrovie — ed.) Vlad Kulminsky, in July 2022, the minister was removed from his post of agriculture Viorel Gercu, the head of the Ministry of the Environment, Rodica Iordanova, resigned in September, and Sergiu Gaibu left the post of the Minister of Economy in November.
Numerous studies show that about 60% of residents are dissatisfied with the situation in the country. Also, about 70% of Moldovans are disappointed with the policy of the authorities and almost 65% support the idea of changing the entire government.