Licensed in law from the State University of Moldova and holding a master’s degree in interdisciplinary European studies from the College of Europe (Natolin) in Poland, Olesea Stamate was appointed Minister of Justice in 2019 in the government led by Maia Sandu, then leader of the Action and Solidarity Party (PAS). In 2020, she officially became a PAS member and vice president of the political party.

During her tenure as Minister of Justice, the Superior Council of Prosecutors (CSP) announced a public competition for the position of Prosecutor General. At the first stage, a commission formed by the Ministry of Justice screened the 20 candidates, narrowing the list down to four names, including Alexandr Stoianoglo, a former prosecutor and former Democratic Party MP. These four finalists were to be submitted to the CSP, but amid public criticism of how the commission evaluated the candidates, Olesea Stamate announced that the preselection process had been compromised and that she intended to annul the results.

Meanwhile, the Sandu Government assumed responsibility for appointing the Prosecutor General and submitted an amendment prepared by the Ministry of Justice that would allow the Prime Minister to directly propose a “shortlist” of candidates to the CSP. However, this move angered the Socialists, who submitted a motion of no confidence against the Sandu Government and, together with the Democrats’ votes, dismissed the entire Cabinet.

In the new parliamentary elections held on March 15, 2020, Olesea Stamate ran as the PAS candidate in single-member constituency no. 38 in Hincesti municipality. She did not win a seat in Parliament, being defeated by doctor Stefan Gatcan, the Socialist Party’s candidate. However, at the end of the same year, she was appointed justice advisor to the President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, who had just won the presidential elections.

In the snap parliamentary elections on July 11, 2021, she ran again on the PAS list and won a seat in the new Parliament, taking over as chair of the Legal, Appointments, and Immunities Committee. However, in the spring of 2025, a few months before the parliamentary elections, Stamate found herself at the center of a scandal after information surfaced that several inmates serving life sentences had been released under a law adopted back in 2021, with the votes of 56 PAS deputies and 20 from the Bloc of Communists and Socialists.

Shortly afterward, PAS announced that “following a thorough review of the entire process, we found that the former chair of the Legal, Appointments, and Immunities Committee, Olesea Stamate, introduced several amendments to the Amnesty Law (a total of three) that ultimately enabled the release of prisoners”, and expelled her from the party.

Stamate, however, denied the accusations. “I did not secretly promote any amendment that would lead to the dubious release of inmates sentenced to life imprisonment,” she replied. Later, she submitted a draft resolution to establish a parliamentary inquiry commission to clarify the circumstances “that led to the recent releases of those sentenced to life imprisonment”, but did not receive the support of her colleagues.

Consequently, in the parliamentary elections on 28 September 2025, Olesea Stamate entered the electoral race as an independent candidate.

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