In the talk show “Issue of the day” broadcast by Canal2 channel on October 9, 2018, Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Iurie Leancă referred to the necessity of introducing the European integration objective in the Constitution. For a number of reasons, Iurie Leancă has well-founded motives to plead the European cause of the Republic of Moldova. Besides holding the post of Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration, Iurie Leancă is also the president of the European People’s Party of Moldova (PPEM), which has the European integration among its statutory and programmatic objectives. It should be noted that as the Prime Minister of Moldova, on November 29, 2013 Iurie Leancă initialed the Association Agreement between the Republic of Moldova and the European Union. In general, serving as the minister of foreign affairs and European integration in 2009-2013, Iurie Leancă was one of the main artisans of the success story in the European integration process of the Republic of Moldova. Namely in that period, when high-ranking European and American officials hurried to see with the own eyes the effects of the success story, the project Rethink Moldova was launched and this defined the medium-term priorities of our country, engaging the massive political and financial support of the development partners.
All the aforementioned accomplishments were achieved with the direct involvement of Iurie Leancă. But the positive effects of his activity started to be shadowed by phenomena that were unfavorable for the same European integration of the Republic of Moldova. In 2012 already, when the shooting accident occurred in the Domnească Forest, the manners of the new pro-European elite of the Republic of Moldova started to become known. Since then, the chain of events that undermine the European integration of the Republic of Moldova have relentlessly continued – suspect concession of the Chisinau International Airport; robbing of the banking system; selective justice for punishing the scapegoats and protecting those who are close to the pro-European government; ostentatious ignoring of the European Union’s recommendations over sensitive issues; invalidation of elections based on invented reasons; capital amnesty; illegal extraditions of citizens; very dubious privatization procedures, etc. Regrettably, Iurie Leancă was involved in the adoption of some of the decisions that form part of this chain of events that affected Moldova’s European integration.
The given chain of unfavorable events should be underlined amid the assertions made by Iurie Leancă in the talk show “Issue of the day”. “Regrettably, after 27 years of independence, we haven’t yet ensured irreversibility on the path to the West. We still have many revanchist, nostalgic forces that pursue entirely different objectives, misleading the people”. This affirmation about the plans of revanchist forces hits against the harsh reality built by an ostensible pro-European government. That’s why Iurie Leancă’ pro-European plea seems to be a naivety or propagandistic pastiche: “When the country’s Constitution, which is the supreme law that governs all the other decisions, regulations and documents, clearly provides that the European integration objective of Moldova is a key priority, this becomes a powerful symbolical message”. This statement seems even more strange as, if we attentively read the text of the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova, where there are stipulated the human rights and freedoms, separation of powers, independence of justice, etc., we reach the conclusion that Deputy Prime Minister Iurie Leancă didn’t learn the basic formula – the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life!
The context in which Deputy Prime Minister Iurie Leancă makes his pro-European plea for this to be enshrined in the Constitution despite the revanchist forces should also be noted. So, this plea was made the day the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs approved the draft Report on the implementation of the Association Agreement with the Republic of Moldova, which notes the EU’s concerns about the deterioration of the situation concerning the respect for the democratic values in the Republic of Moldova.
It is very sad to learn what the European officials really think about our country: “Moldova is captured by oligarch interests, with a concentration of the political and economic power in the hands of a narrow group of persons who exercise their influence on the Parliament, Government, political parties, state administration, the police, justice and the press”. Another element of the context, which is actually the main element, is the reiteration buy the president of the Democratic Party of Moldova (PDM) of the initiative to amend the Constitution and enshrine the European integration course in it. It should be noted here that the leader of the PDM does this because on September 14 this year he announced the commencement of the party’s campaign prior to the parliamentary elections of February 24, 2019. That’s why the pro-European plea of Iurie Leancă is rather a contribution to the PDM’s campaign – an immediate reaction by an inferior to support the chief’s initiative.
In conclusion, we can say that the plea of the Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration Iurie Leancă in favor of including the European integration objective in the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova amid the reiteration of the PDM’s initiatives and the EU’s assessments regrettably looks like massage to a wooden leg. As it was noted, the spirit, not the letter matters, but this is depressing.
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