In Moldova, New President Wrestles with Hostile Parliament

Angela Gramada, director of the Experts for Security and Global Affairs Association, ESGA, said Gavrilita's potential election would put PAS in a bind.

"How will they [PAS] support their own prime minister, whom they didn't vote for?" she asked.

"It is a unique situation in which political actors demonstrate that they cannot raise the level of political debate, do not think about the needs of the country or correctly evaluate their parties' internal situations," Gramada told BIRN.

Dodon: 'It's a circus'

Under the Moldovan constitution, an early parliamentary election is triggered if parliament twice fails to endorse a new government within 45 days of the first request or if parliament fails to pass any laws for three months.

In nominating Gavrilita, the new president turned to a trusted ally who served as finance minister in a short-lived government led by Sandu in 2019, saying she would focus on economic development and the fight against corruption.

Moldova's outgoing President Igor Dodon gestures during a joint press briefing in Chisinau, Moldova,  December 23, 2020. Photo: EPA/Doru Dumitru

But in the same breath, Sandu said she believed an early parliamentary election to be "the only way out of the political stalemate in which we find ourselves."

Gavrilita accepted the nomination, but her party, PAS, said it would not back her, or any nominee.

"Only in this way will it be possible to trigger the early election that the people are waiting for," the party said in a statement. "The problem of this country is not the government, no matter how professional it is; the problem of this country is the most corrupt parliament in the country's history, which will not let this government...