Andrei Năstase

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.