Igor Grosu

Igor Grosu
Grosu in 2023
President of the Moldovan Parliament
Assumed office
29 July 2021
DeputyMihai Popșoi
Vlad Batrîncea
Doina Gherman
Preceded byZinaida Greceanîi
President of the Party of Action and Solidarity
Assumed office
15 May 2022
Acting: 9 December 2020 – 15 May 2022
Preceded byMaia Sandu
Member of the Moldovan Parliament
Assumed office
9 March 2019
Parliamentary groupParty of Action and Solidarity
Deputy Minister of Education
In office
15 August 2012 – 12 August 2015
PresidentNicolae Timofti
Prime MinisterVladimir Filat
Iurie Leancă
Chiril Gaburici
Natalia Gherman (acting)
Valeriu Streleț
MinisterMaia Sandu
Corina Fusu
Personal details
Born (1972-11-30) 30 November 1972 (age 52)
Andrușul de Sus, Moldavian SSR, Soviet Union
Citizenship Moldova
 Romania[1]
Political partyParty of Action and Solidarity
Alma materMoldova State University

Igor Grosu (born 30 November 1972) is a Moldovan politician who is the President of the Parliament of Moldova since 29 July 2021. He has been a member of the Moldovan Parliament since March 2019. Grosu has been the leader (at first acting leader) of the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) since 9 December 2020.

Career

Igor Grosu became the Deputy Minister of Education of Moldova under Minister of Education, Maia Sandu. In August 2015, the Prime Minister of Moldova, Valeriu Streleț, appointed Grosu as the Prime Minister's principal consultant for Science, Education, Health Policies and Social Protection. The next Acting Prime Minister, Gheorghe Brega, dismissed Grosu a few months after he was appointed.[citation needed]

When Maia Sandu founded the Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) in 2015-2016, Grosu joined as a founder-member of the party and became the party's General Secretary. In the 2019 parliamentary elections, he ran for the ACUM Platforma DA - PAS Electoral Bloc in 20th Constituency-Strășeni but was defeated by the incumbent Prime Minister, Pavel Filip. However, he was elected as deputy from the national list of the ACUM bloc, which had come in 4th place.

He also founded a few non-governmental organizations, such as: Amnesty International Moldova, National Assistance, the Non-Gov Organizations Information Center of Moldova CONTACT (Romanian: Centrul național de asistență și informare a ONG-urilor din Moldova "CONTACT"), Pro-Democracy Association (Romanian: Asociația Pro-Democrație), National Youth Council of Moldova (Romanian: Consiliul Național al Tineretului din Moldova), and the Analysis and Evaluation Center of Reform (Romanian: Centrul de analiză și evaluare a reformelor).[2]

In December 2020, after Maia Sandu won the presidential elections and resigned her party membership, Igor Grosu became the Acting President of PAS.[3] President Sandu appointed Grosu on 25 March 2021 to form the Government, even though she expressed her support to the dissolution of the Parliament in order to held snap parliamentary elections.[4] After the majority of deputies in the Parliament (PSRM, ȘOR and ex-PDM factions), the proposal was automatically rejected.[5] The Parliament was dissolved on 28 April and snap elections were held on 11 July later that year.[6]

He ran in 2021 parliamentary elections with the first position in the national list.[7] PAS won then the best electoral result of any right-wing party in the Moldovan history (by percentage): 52,80% of votes (63/101 MPs).[8] On July 29, he was voted by 64 MPs the President of the Moldovan Parliament.[9]

On 6 July 2023, Grosu and President Maia Sandu together commemorated Stalin's 1949 purge and deportation of political opponents in Moldova. He said that those who survived the deportation to Siberia and returned to Moldova continued the battle against the Soviet regime:[10]

They preserved the memory, passed it on to the children, and the religious holidays.. If you don’t know your history and your past, you risk repeating it. What we see now in our Ukrainian neighbours are hundreds of thousands of displaced citizens and children separated from their families. It’s a kind of deja-vu, and you get the impression that what’s left of this rotten [Russian] empire is putting human destinies on the altars of sacrifice.

In November 2023 on its 90th anniversary, Grosu in Parliament condemned the Ukrainian Holodomor, as well as the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine and genocide of Ukrainians.[11] The Parliament approved his statement.[12] He said:[11]

Our attachment to universal human values obliges us today to stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian people to end the policy of genocide against the Ukrainian people in the 21st century and to maintain peace and freedom on the European continent.. No imperial power has any chance of success when there is unity.. For the Russian Empire, regardless of what it calls itself today, the value of human life means nothing.. And what is happening today in Ukraine - in Kyiv, Bucha, Irpin, Melitopol, Kharkiv, Kherson, and hundreds of other towns and villages - is a confirmation of the criminal nature of this regime.. But the time will come, and we know that this will happen after Ukraine's victory in the war, when these atrocities will be condemned and punished.

In April 2024 Grosu as House President remembered the Soviet role in the Moldovan famine of 1946-47.[13] In Moldova the third Saturday of April is designated as the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Organized Famine of 1946-1947,[14] that killed an estimated 300,000 people.[11] He remarked on the Luceafărul Theatre performance of the documentary show "1946" that was then touring the country.[13] He said:[14]

This was a horrific famine orchestrated by the Soviet communist regime that caused immense suffering for hundreds of thousands of people.. We must discuss and remember this dark period of our past. It is our duty to shed light on the famine, the deportations, and all the atrocities inflicted by authoritarian and dictatorial regimes throughout history.

Grosu's politics later attracted the attention of Dmitri Medvedev, who presided over Russia from 2008-2012, and characterized Grosu as a "hypocritical fool".[15]

References

  1. ^ "Profile: Igor Grosu".
  2. ^ "Profile: Igor Grosu". profiles.rise.md. Retrieved 2021-07-29.
  3. ^ "Maia Sandu a demisionat din fruntea PAS". adevarul.ro. 2020-12-09. Retrieved 2022-02-06.
  4. ^ Welle (www.dw.com), Deutsche. "Maia Sandu l-a desemnat pe Igor Grosu să formeze noul guvern | DW | 16.03.2021". DW.COM (in Romanian). Retrieved 2022-02-06.
  5. ^ AGERPRES. "Republica Moldova: Tentativa de validare a Guvernului Grosu a eşuat". www.agerpres.ro (in Romanian). Retrieved 2022-02-06.
  6. ^ Welle (www.dw.com), Deutsche. "Președintele Maia Sandu a dizolvat Parlamentul - pe 11 iulie vor avea loc alegeri anticipate | DW | 28.04.2021". DW.COM (in Romanian). Retrieved 2022-02-06.
  7. ^ "Lista candidaților PAS la alegerile parlamentare din 2021 - alegeri.md". alegeri.md (in Romanian). Retrieved 2022-02-06.
  8. ^ Valică, Carmen (12 July 2021). "Republica Moldova alege Europa | Ce urmează pentru PAS și Maia Sandu și de ce a pierdut AUR". Europa Liberă România (in Romanian). Retrieved 2022-02-06.
  9. ^ "Igor Grosu, după ce a fost ales președinte al Parlamentului. "Să rămânem umili și dedicați oamenilor"". tv8.md. Retrieved 2022-02-06.
  10. ^ https://balkaninsight.com/2023/07/06/moldova-commemorates-victims-of-soviet-deportations/. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  11. ^ a b c https://radiomoldova.md/p/25755/speaker-of-the-moldovan-parliament-condemns-the-russian-invasion-of-ukraine-and-the-holodomor. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  12. ^ https://www.parlament.md/Actualitate/Comunicatedepresa/tabid/90/ContentId/8153/Page/0/language/en-US/Default.aspx. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  13. ^ a b "Moldovan speaker's message on Day of Remembrance of Victims of 1946-1947 famine".
  14. ^ a b "Moldova Remembers Famine Victims (Ignored by Some)". 25 April 2024.
  15. ^ https://en.top-war.ru/247459-licemernyj-durak-medvedev-ocenil-ideju-spikera-parlamenta-moldavii-priznat-poslevoennyj-golod-genocidom.html. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)