Today it is exactly one year since Ilan Shor became party leader and practically throughout the year he was under preventive arrest (mostly at home). But this fact did not prevent him from being quite active in the politics of Moldova.

From the beginning, it should be noted that Ilan Shor was placed under preventive arrest immediately after being elected party leader. This led his party colleagues to link these two things and to conclude that Ilan Shor had become a threat in politics, so it was tried to neutralize him.

Already being under preventive arrest, Ilan Shor made a mini-reform in the party. It was renamed (from the “Ravnopravie” Movement into Shor Party) and promoted a new program of the party, focused on concrete areas of activity and co-opted new members, including in the governing bodies of the party.

Throughout the year, there were noticed two clear directions related to the Shor Party – the transfer of image from the good things made by Ilan Shor in Orhei to the whole political formation, with the insistent promotion of the idea that what has succeeded in this city can be transposed in all the country; the association of the social megaproject of Ilan Shor (the social stores in several towns and villages of the country) with the image of the new party. To a large extent, this has succeeded and the Shor Party won the sympathy of some of the beneficiaries of the services provided by these stores.

The presidential election played an important role in promoting the Shor Party. The candidate of the party, doctor Inna Popenco was one of the most visible political figures in that election, including due to the activism she showed, but also the accent that she would be a candidate of the people and her exclusion from the electoral race on the last hundred meters placed her as a victim of a political game, which again brought some dividends to the political party.

Looking at the details during this year Ilan Shor and his team endeavored to combat all image attacks against him and discard all associations that could have damaged his image. To some extent, this tactic was expressed, some specialists in the field speaking practically openly that the image of the Mayor of Orhei is much better than when he launched in politics. The apparent change in Ilan Shor’s tactics in the last few months also played a special role in this fact. He passed from defensive to offensive, retaining foreign lawyers, practically declaring open war to Kroll and securing the support of important European decision-makers. All this shows that Ilan Shor has a strictly strategy established that he follows step by step, which shall not to be neglected if we evaluate his future chances.

All of the above mentioned shows that the first year of Ilan Shor as a political leader was an intense one. Some may say that the year was relatively good for the leader of Shor Party and others may be more reserved in this regard. But, surely this year, Ilan Shor had a significant presence in the politics of Moldova and in the public life of the country. And such a presence, if managed correctly, can also produce some results. It remains to be seen how much it will be realized by Ilan Shor.

Dumitru Spătaru