In the election campaign of 2014, the Democratic Party (PDM) presented itself as a powerful supporter of the European integration, in parallel with the maintaining of good relations with the Russian Federation. In its electoral platform, the PDM underlined that the integration into the EU is the best option for the national interest. The experts who analyzed the level of fulfilment of the promised made by the PDM in the parliamentary elections of 2014 ascertained that the relations with the EU during the electoral cycle of 2014-2018 reached a critical, unprecedented point that was emphasized in the progress report and in two resolutions of the European Parliament of July and November 2018. In the period, the financial support agreed with the EU for the justice sector reform in Moldova was stopped, while the macro-financial assistance was suspended, IPN reports.
On Facebook Live, executive director of the Association for Participatory Democracy ADEPT Igor Boțan said the PDM has been in power since 2016 until 2019 and this party had all the necessary tools to fulfil its promises. The PDM proposed switching over from the representative mandate to the imperative mandate according to which those who make offers to the citizens and these accept them should deliver their promises exactly. Otherwise, they can be given a vote of no confidence by the people.
According to the expert, the promises made in the field of foreign policy envisioned the rapprochement with the EU, powerful support for the European integration course for ensuring welfare, stability and freedom in Moldova. This promise was accompanied by the PDM’s efforts as part of a campaign initiated by ex-president of the party Marian Lupu, immediately after the elections. The goal of this was to persuade the people to support the party’s initiative to file an application for EU membership by 2019. But this didn’t happen because particular factors intervened.
The analysis authors established that the relations with Russia during the electoral cycle of 2014-2018 worsened considerably and the efforts to remove the barriers placed on the path of the Moldovan products to the Russian market were substituted by the Russian authorities by political conditions: the PSRM’s victory in the future parliamentary elections. The Moldovan authorities explained that the deterioration of the Moldova-Russian relations was due to the series of measures that they had to take in response to Russia’s unfriendly actions, such as the maintenance of bans on the import of Moldovan products into Russia and demonstrative destruction of Moldovan products imported into Russia.
Speaking about economic aspects, economic expert Iurie Morcotylo said there were identified 19 promises made in the election campaign f 2014. These were grouped into three categories: economy, jobs, and agriculture. Of the 19 commitments, 11 were implemented partially, but the situation is not so good as it seems. In economy and finance, the Democratic Party promised a set of fiscal measures to encourage employees to create jobs in the formal sector and to stimulate SMEs. It was also planned that the salaries and pensions would rise twice during the next electoral cycle and direct investment of about €1 billion would annually come to Moldova.
Iurie Morcotylo said the tax concessions were mainly witnessed in 2017-2018. Even if fiscal stimulation efforts were made, the salaries and pensions rose twice. The rise in nominal terms was of 30-40%, while in real terms almost twice lower. “Moreover, it should be noted that any party that promises the salaries or pensions will rise twice resorts to populism and the voters should be on guard as the salaries and pensions can rise by only 20-40%,” he stated.
According to the expert, the situation of the business environment didn’t change much, while the direct investment, owing to the banking fraud, decreased. The FDI in 2014-2017 was under US$ 200 million. The quality of the business environment remains a constraint to the investment attractiveness of Moldova. The low volume of investments, including of the foreign ones, has more negative effects on the quality of the socioeconomic growth in Moldova.
