Andrei Năstase (born 6 August 1975) is a Moldovan politician, activist, and attorney who served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs from 8 June 2019 to 12 November 2019. He was also a member of Parliament of Moldova in 2019. Năstase was the leader of the Dignity and Truth Platform (Platforma DA) from 2015 to 2021.
Andrei Nastase became a marked man due to his role in exposing a criminal network run by the Russian mafia and shady powerful oligarchs which had laundered a $22bn of illicit money. He also became known for mobilising the Moldovan society following the 2014 Moldovan bank fraud scandal, which was a bank fraud involving three banks working together to extract as much loan finance as possible from the banks without any obvious business rationale.
In the 2019 parliamentary election, the ACUM Electoral Bloc, a coalition comprising Năstase's Platforma DA and the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) led by Maia Sandu, secured 26 out of 101 parliamentary seats in Moldova. Amidst the 2019 constitutional crisis, Andrei Năstase was named Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs in the Sandu cabinet. On November 12, 2019, the Sandu cabinet was ousted following a no-confidence vote triggered by the government's decision to bypass its own rules in the appointment process for the General Prosecutor. Năstase openly criticized Sandu for unilaterally overruling its own contest rules without the consultation of coalition partners, a move that was later adjudged unconstitutional and illegal.
Biography Born on August 6, 1975, in the village of Mîndrești, nowadays in Telenești district, he is the son of Andrei and Anna Năstase. Between 1982 and 1992 Năstase studied at the Mîndrești school, from 1992 until 1993 he has studied at the Faculty of History-Geography of the Ștefan cel Mare University of Suceava, Romania, and between 1993 and 1997 he studied at the Faculty of Law of the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Romania.Cine organizează protestul din centrul Chișinăului? Liderii Platformei DA și istoria organizației Adevărul.md, 10 septembrie 2015
Professional activity From 1997 to 2000, Năstase worked as a prosecutor, employed at the Office of the Chișinău Prosecutor of Transport, initially as interim aid, then as assistant to the transport prosecutor. Not much information about his work in this position is available. In a reply sent to RISE Moldova following an enquiry, the Office of the Prosecutor General of Moldova stated that "in the archives, some documents set up by the assistant of the transport prosecutor, Andrei Năstase, regarding inspections of several aspects of the activity of civil aviation enterprises, including the state enterprise Air Moldova, have been identified". According to the reply of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Moldova, "although, following the controls, a number of derogations were established in the activity of Air Moldova (subordinated to the Civil Aviation Authority, headed in that period by Victor Țopa), no prosecutor's reaction has been taken".
From 2000 to 2002, Năstase worked as a deputy director of the Moldovan-German Joint Undertaking Air Moldova S.R.L. During this time, Air Moldova has been transformed from a state-owned enterprise into a joint venture, a procedure which has drawn accusations of unlawfulness from political analyst Victor Gurău. According to him, the company's shares were taken over by a so-called foreign investor, who had no accounts and did not meet the minimum requirements to form an undertaking. However, subsequent investigations from the Government of Moldova did not come to the same conclusions. The restructuring of the company led to an investment of over 2 million dollars and another 18,6 million dollars for the acquisition of two Embraer-type aircraft. In 2002, after the communist government came back to power and pursued an aggressive renationalization campaign of multiple enterprises, they abusively nationalized Air Moldova, depriving the German investors of their shareholding illegally. Following the decision to renationalize the company, the authorities were forced to pump money into the enterprise, which did not alleviate the company's financial issues. Following the collapse of the communist government in 2009, the company was privatized once again by other investors.
Political activity In early 2015, Năstase, along with several opinion leaders, journalists, lawyers, political scientists, ambassadors, and others, participated in the foundation of the Civic Platform Dignity and Truth.Liderii de opinii au lansat Platforma Civică Demnitate și Adevăr "DA" ZdG, 24.02.2015. He is also one of the leaders of the protest movement in Moldova in September 2015. On 1 November 2015, he was elected President of the Executive Bureau of the Initiative Group set up to organize the Republican referendum amending the Constitution with regard to the election and direct dismissal of the president by the people, the limitation of parliamentary immunity and the number of deputies from 101 to 71. Năstase has also drafted laws that were subsequently examined and positively endorsed by the Constitutional Court. In December 2015, a part of the Dignity and Truth Platform members, including Năstase, joined the People's Force Party.Platforma DA fuzionează cu Partidul Forța Poporului Unimedia.info, 11 decembrie 2015 At the extraordinary congress on 13 December 2015, the party was renamed to Dignity and Truth Platform Party (Partidul Politic "Platforma Demnitate și Adevăr", Platforma DA), elected new governing bodies, and Năstase was elected as party chairman.Andrei Năstase, noul președinte al Partidului Politic Demnitate și Adevăr; A fost edificată o alternativă politică Jurnal.md, 13 decembrie 2015
Republican referendum amending the Constitution 2015 In 2015, the Civic Platform “Dignity and Truth” (DA), led by Andrei Năstase, launched an initiative to revise the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova through a republican referendum, which required at least 10% of the population to sign. The central objective was the restoration of the direct election of the President by citizens, alongside broader institutional reforms concerning accountability of state authorities.
The initiative enjoyed substantial public backing. The initiative group collected approximately 400,000 signatures in support of holding the referendum, while contemporary opinion polls indicated a clear and comfortable majority of respondents favored the direct election of the head of state.
The Central Electoral Commission ultimately dismissed the referendum request on legal grounds related to the admissibility of the proposed constitutional questions. The organizers contested the decision, alleging political interference and claiming that oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc stood behind the blocking of the initiative.
In March 2016, following the broader political context and public pressure surrounding the issue, the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova ruled to restore the direct election of the President. The change was therefore implemented through constitutional adjudication rather than through the referendum procedure initially promoted by the organizers.
2016 Presidential election Andrei Năstase was appointed by the Political National Council of the Dignity and Truth Platform Party to run in the 2016 presidential elections. He was registered on 18 September 2016 as a candidate, the fourth officially registered with the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) for the elections of 30 October 2016. On October 15, 2016, Andrei Năstase, despite some polls showing him having more popular support, officially announced his withdrawal from the race and endorsed Action and Solidarity Party candidate Maia Sandu. The decision to not run in the first round was meant to keep the pro-European vote united and ensure Igor Dodon and Vladimir Plahotniuc do not "Split Moldova amongst themselves for the next period". Despite these efforts, Maia Sandu lost against Igor Dodon in the second round, but the event was classed as new political maturity in Moldovan society and further united the pro-EU front in Moldova.
2017 European People's Party affiliation During Andrei Năstase's leadership, the Dignity and Truth Platform strengthened its ties with European centre-right political structures. In 2017, the party was accepted as an observer member of the European People's Party, the largest political family in the European Union, which brings together Christian-democratic and centre-right parties across Europe.
The affiliation placed the party within the broader network of pro-European political movements and reflected its declared commitment to European integration, democratic reforms, and anti-corruption policies in the Moldova.
2018 Chișinău mayoral election At the 2018 Chișinău mayoral election, after finishing second in the first round with 32.1%, Năstase gained 52.57% of the total number of votes in the runoff, beating Ion Ceban (47.43%). However, on 19 June 2018, the elections were declared void on the grounds of violation of election silence on election day by both candidates, contrary to the provisions of the Electoral Code. This practice to encourage people to vote was, however, customary in Moldovan society since Independence, and came as a shock to International observers and locals, spurring International criticism and massive protests in Chișinău. As such, the mandate of the elected mayor, Andrei Năstase, was not validated by the magistrates of the Center Sector Court in Chișinău, a decision maintained on 21 June 2018 by the Chișinău Court of Appeal, as well as by the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ), which, on 25 June 2018, gave the final verdict on the validation of the results of the Chișinău elections. On June 29, 2018, the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) also declared void the local elections held in the capital city. Năstase regarded the decision as politically motivated and considered it to be ordered by Vladimir Plahotniuc. Following this decision, the election for the mayor of Chișinău was to be held in 2019, and the position was to be headed by an interim mayor until then.
On October 8, 2019, after the Moldovan constitutional crisis, which led to the departure of oligarchs Vlad Plahotniuc and Ilan Shor, the Chișinău Court of Appeal validated the Andrei Nastase's mandate by overturning the ruling issued by the Chișinău Court that annulled the local elections held in 2018. Shortly after, Nastase resigned from the post as he was the Minister of Internal Affairs at the time.
2019 Parliamentary election and constitutional crisis In the 2019 parliamentary election, Andrei Năstase was a central figure of the pro-European opposition, campaigning as a leading representative of the Dignity and Truth Platform. The party ran as part of the NOW Platform DA and PAS(ACUM), an alliance formed with the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS), with the stated aim of dismantling oligarchic influence, restoring democratic institutions, and strengthening the rule of law.