In April 2008, contested election results and alleged electoral fraud in Moldova triggered public protests and political turmoil between activists and state authorities. Eventually, the Communist Party of then-President Vladimir Voronin was replaced it with a coalition called the Alliance for European Integration, which pushed for the implementation of a pro-EU coalition government. The term “Twitter Revolution” has become widely used to describe the movement due to the nature and importance of the revolution’s digital mobilization. Notably, multiple types of social media platforms were used to mobilize people to come out to the streets in protest, demanding positive change in 2009 and again in 2019. In the past, anti-corruption reforms were seldom implemented effectively, and often used solely to mask the underlying roots of kleptocratic systems. With the election of Maia Sandu as the President of Moldova in 2020, the process of dismantling these systems has been underway, with more progress on the horizon.

In this episode of Collectively Combating Kleptocracy, Victoria Popa (Anti-Corruption Partnership Consultant, Centre for Analysis and Prevention of Corruption in Moldova) joins Izabela Chmielewska (Program Manager, Anti-Corruption & Governance Center, Center for International Private Enterprise) to provide insights about the cyclical revolution, with knowledge informed by an extensive background in Moldova’s anti-corruption efforts, including the development of monitoring and evaluation frameworks, public administration integrity policy, and advocacy for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Popa outlines the political and economic context that facilitated kleptocracy and ignited collective action efforts in Moldova while also discussing specific mobilization techniques, including the use of social media technology. Lastly, Popa discusses the critical role that activists, journalists, NGOs, and international organizations have played in the collective action movement and outlines the wider impact this has had in the pro-democratic fight against corruption in Moldova over time.