The Republic of Moldova in a Political Deadlock
More fragile than ever, the stability of the Republic of Moldova is now under threat from all sides.
Bogdan Matei, 26.11.2015, 12:43
Moldovan police have announced theyve discovered a paramilitary group that was planning attacks on state institutions and insurrectional scenarios similar to those in neighboring Ukraine. Searches and arrests have been conducted in the north of the republic, but also in the capital Chisinau. The head of the criminal group and its members, some of them born in the pro-Russian eastern part of Ukraine, are people with a criminal record. It could be a scenario masterminded by the Russian Federation, aimed at destabilizing the Republic of Moldova, the Moldovan political analyst Oazu Nantoi has said. Violent incidents would be additional arguments for the pro-Moscow opposition, which keeps announcing the failure of the current governing formula and calls for the ousting of all pro-Western officials.
President Nicolae Timofti has called parliamentary parties to consultations on Friday, with a view to designating a new candidate for the office of Prime Minister, but nobody seems optimistic about the republics European aspirations. Part of the former governing coalition, alongside the Liberals and the Liberal-Democrats, the Democrats have for some time now been negotiating with the Socialists and Communists in the opposition. The leader of the latter, the former president of Moldova Vladimir Voronin, pleads for a left-wing governing coalition, comprising the Communist Party, the Socialist Party and the Democratic Party. The Socialist chief, Igor Dodon, however, calls for early elections, which he is convinced his party would win without any problems.
Early elections will be held unless a new cabinet is appointed by the end of the year. The current matters are being managed by an interim government, following the ousting on October 29th of the former Liberal-Democrat Prime Minister Valeriu Strelet, under a no-confidence motion filed by Socialists and Communists and endorsed by the Democratic MPs. To Moldovas Western partners, the current political deadlock is almost unreal, given that last year the Republic of Moldova signed Association and Free-Trade agreements with Brussels and announced its potential accession to the EU in 2020.
‘Sit at the negotiations table without imposing any conditions, Elmar Brok, the Chairman of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs, urged the leaders of the parties that have declared themselves ‘pro-Western. The political situation is disappointing and the governing parties have shown nothing but lack of professionalism and cowardice, wasting peoples trust, other members of the European Parliament have said. Romanian MEP Cristian Preda, a specialist in political sciences, believes that there are three main reasons why the political crisis in the Republic of Moldova has become so acute: Russias influence on the public opinion, the oligarchs uncontrollable power and corruption, which has rendered state institutions extremely vulnerable.
(Translation by M. Ignatescu)
