Prime minister
On 14 January 2016, when the candidature of Vladimir Plahotniuc (from the PDM side) for the prime-minister position of the Republic of Moldova was rejected, the President Nicolae Timofti has appointed the Secretary General of the President's Office, Ion Păduraru, as candidate for the position of the prime minister. Instantly, one some media agencies have wrote that Păduraru's name appears in the Vlad Filat dossier, more precisely in Ilan Shor's self-denouncing statement. The next day, less than 12 hours after President Nicolae Timofti has appointed the Păduraru candidature for the prime minister position, the PDM leader, Marian Lupu submitted a request stating that the party did not agree with Păduraru's designation and demanded the revocation of the presidential decree on the candidate with the promise that a candidate's short list will be submitted in the near future, and shortly, he submitted his own candidate for the prime minister position, and namely, Pavel Filip, deputy chairman of the PDM and Minister of Information Technology and Communications. In a little while, Ion Păduraru announced that he was withdrawing his candidacy from the post of prime minister in favor of Pavel Filip, and according to other sources, President Nicolae Timofti cancelled the appointment decree of his counsellor Ion Păduaru as candidate for the position of prime minister. After that, the President had designated Pavel Filip as candidate for prime minister position, motivating that he made this decision "following the proposal made by the parliamentary majority of 55 MPs."
The Pavel Filip's government was voted and invested in office despite popular protests held on 20 January 2016, after 16 PM, with the vote of 57 deputies out of 101, without finalizing the presentation of the government program and skipping the questions and answers part, because of the PSRM MPs' protest that held with the parliamentary tribune blocking, which generated a scandal. The new Cabinet of Ministers took the oath in front of the President Nicolae Timofti close to midnight.
According to the polls made in 2019 related to the most respected politicians of the Republic of Moldova, Pavel Filip has only 3,5% of trust. In other polls he is placed at the fourth position and fifth position.
In June 2019, the government of Prime Minister Pavel Filip resigned. He was succeeded by Moldova's new prime minister, Maia Sandu.
