Moldova's parliament will discuss on October 29 the no-confidence motion submitted by MPs of the Socialist Party (PSRM) and Communist Party (PCRM) on October 22, jurnal.md reports. The 42 MPs of the two parties submitted the motion, but will need the further endorsement of another 9 MPs to dismiss Prime Minister Vladimir Strelet and his cabinet.

While the opposition parties seem able to gain the support needed to have the no-confidence motion endorsed, the formation of a new majority coalition remains unclear. After PSRM MPs attended a session for the reading of the no-confidence motion, they left parliament, thus making it impossible for further debates due to the lack of a quorum.

The PSRM has expressed disappointment with the lack of support from other MPs (particularly from PCRM) for the dismissal of heads of key institutions, including the energy market regulator ANRE and the electoral commission CEC, jurnal.md reported.

A first, incipient step for the formation of a new ruling coalition was marked on October 22, when MPs from the two opposition parties, PSRM and PCRM, received the support of the junior ruling Democratic Party (PD) on moving the centre for anticorruption (CAN) from under the supervision of the government to the supervision of the parliament. The move, in principle justified, happened at a very critical moment. CNA had just started investigations against the head of the senior ruling party, Vlad Filat.

While Prime Minister Strelet has vocally defended Filat, the speaker of the parliament, Andrian Candu, is a close collaborator of Vladimir Plahotniuc (who is also Candu’s marriage godfather). Filat has openly accused Plahotniuc of manipulating the judiciary system, including prosecutors.

Separately, the ruling coalition faces many internal problems. MPs from the junior ruling partners, the Liberal Party (PL) and PD, have refused to back the senior party PLDM on postponing the parliamentary session scheduled for October 22 for one week.