[ - How was the political year 2008 for Moldova and what are your forecasts for 2009?] - 2008 was definitely a lost year for Moldova. The Communists and their allies, the so-called Christian-Democrats, had this single concern: to consolidate their positions in order to remain in power after 2009. Despite repeated appeals from the National Liberal Party (PNL), the Opposition didn't joint their efforts to condemn it. The Communists reinforced their position as a police regime, through dubious figures in the law enforcement bodies, removed their prime minister, who had served them to the extent that it caused disgust, in order to replace him with a woman, who has taken an absolutely ungrateful mission of covering and whitewashing the schemes of the communist-turned-capitalist government, which adopted abusive laws and amendments, in particular in electoral matters. Now, at the end of their term, we also see the effects of the judicial abuse catching up with the Communists. I mean the lawsuits lost at the European Court of Human Rights. Other 'successes' of the Communist government are the continuous violations of the human rights, the deepening economic decline, people driven to despair by the situation concerning banks and loans, the lack of salary raises, the insufficiency of jobs and the absence of social housing, while pensioners are chased away from the main square of the country as they rally to lament misery and starvation. The Party of Communists (PCRM) and the Christian-Democratic People's Party (PPCD) adopted amendments to the 2008 State Budget and a budget for 2009 to give subsidies only to the communities which elected the representatives of these two parties. The social system cannot guarantee survival to the people, while the health care system is down. At the same time, the Presidential Office affords the luxury to purchase chandeliers valued at nearly 5 million dollars, brought in by smuggling, and this means money being laundered for electoral purposes. Other hundreds of millions are being spent on dead projects. The members of the family-clan are seizing other people's businesses, the Government is selling publicly-owned companies like Moldasig, while the state-run Savings Bank is extending huge loans for the headquarters of the ruling party, not to mention that the interpellations by the MPs are not treated with proper seriousness, while people are complaining that there is no one in the government to hear them out. The emergence of the middle class has been stopped under Communist rule, the agriculture is down, the Transnistrian issue is unsolved, favoring mob clans on both banks of the Nistru. The PCRM uses its men from SIS, police and bodies like the labor inspection, to persecute the business sector instead of creating proper conditions for businesses to grow. Many things can be said about what is going on in our country, but perhaps the most deplorable is the continuous persecution of the Romanians in the Republic of Moldova. The Communists have waged war on culture and education, depriving the youth from the opportunity to go to university, while sending their children to study abroad... But the most important thing is that this antinational and unpopular government received reprobation in a couple of joint statements from the ambassadors and heads of diplomatic missions, who condemned the negative performance and antidemocratic backslides of the Communists, who are unwilling to fulfill the commitments taken on the path of European integration. Corruption is rampant, with opinion polls revealing a completely confused society, with dehumanized people begging for a piece of bread. One good thing I would like to mention for 2008 is that, despite the relationship with Romania being spoiled by the Communists, the Moldovan companies are redirecting their exports westward. Following the economic default in August-September 1998, the Alliance for Democracy and Reform in the Moldovan Parliament adopted, on September 11, a historic decision, proclaiming the European integration as Moldova's major strategic goal, which implied a redirection of Moldova's exports to the West. This year we learn with satisfaction that Moldova's trade with Romania constituted 735 million dollars in the first nine months, up nearly 70 percent from 440 million dollars in the similar period the previous year. Romania is for several months the main destination market for the Moldovan goods. For comparison, the volume of trade with Russia (a very big country!) in the same period stood at 685 million dollars. But let's go back to the Communist government, whose main headache at present are the local administrations – the municipal and the district authorities – because there is where the Opposition is in power and this annoys them. Other concerns of the Communists are to spend money on the whims of the Christian-Democrats, including books maligning their political rivals, whose potential entrance in Parliament scares them. They also fear the Communist rulers might once sit in the defendant's box for the illegalities they systematically indulged in during a decade of PCRM-PPCD government. [ - 2008 completes eight years of Communist government and two consecutive terms of office of President Vladimir Voronin. What are the distinctive features of this period?] - The society has been constantly intimidated, people feel apprehensive, the police, instead of dealing with criminals and thieves, fabricate criminal cases, chase and arrest those who protest against misery. The Communists have fostered crime in the society, with terrible poverty, caused by a corrupt-to-the-backbone government. These eight years – I'd rather say 10 years, after the overthrow of the Alliance for Democracy and Reform in 1999 – have been a regress for Moldova in everything, alarmingly lagging behind even Belarus. Moldova is oscillating between East and West; Chisinau, still Communist, doesn't want to join Georgia and Ukraine in their pro-NATO endeavor, even though this would open great opportunities for Moldova to adopt the Euroatlantic security system, which means larger investments, new jobs, reform of the public sector, eligibility for new projects and programs offered by the West. On the contrary, Voronin pushed a National Security Paper which keeps us within the Russian sphere of influence, and this makes us vulnerable and impotent when we think of our European future, which we want so much. Voronin has demonstrated full incapacity to govern, instead being a pro in stealing, seizing and talking nonsense, because he is Mister Big and fears no one. The PCRM remains to be a party of two-faced and dishonest men, having the PPCD whitewash its image. Iurie Rosca relinquished his pro-Romanian zeal, because it annoyed the Communists. However, according to an IRI poll, 29 percent of the respondents said yes to a potential union between Moldova and Romania. If we recall the first years after the 1991 Putsch, this percentage is an indicator of the growing number of those who support the idea of the union. [ - What does your party intend to obtain in the 2009 legislative elections and what effects will the elections have on Moldova?] - PNL has the clearest national and pro-NATO message of all the political parties in Moldova. Of course, some would ask “what's the fuss with NATO, when we need bread?”. It could be true only if things weren't completely opposite. Until there's no reform that would upgrade us to the standards we must meet if we consider ourselves pro-EU, we won't have foreign investments, new jobs, workers returned from overseas, the capacity to resist the global crisis, which in Moldova will be doubled by the systemic crisis that has affected us profoundly, there will be no higher pensions, no decent salaries, no stipends and benefits that would help people avoid starvation. We are now talking about drastic measures in economy, the banking system, but what has been done all these years to avoid this situation? The severest crime of the Communists against the people is that they haven't supported the emergence of the middle class in Moldova, but also the creation of new jobs. The PNL will rely on the appreciation people will give to my performance as an MP, as I have always been their defender in Parliament and raised a series of very important issues, like public financing of the judiciary, according to the legislation, to ensure its impartiality; smuggling via Transnistria; the legality of the riches of the Voronin clan; establishment of a special relationship with Romania..., etc. We, the PNL, together with the European Action Movement MAE, which we decided to join in the elections, will demonstrate that, unlike the others, we are not part of, younger or older, mob clans. I guess the parties which 'stand a chance' will condemn us for gifting votes to the Communists, but our reply is that our votes will not go to the Communists, but to those who will poll the most of the votes, and everyone is boasting that they will get more than 50 percent. I don't think that after the 2009 elections everything will be smooth. On the contrary, it will be difficult for the democratic parties to agree – the situation in the Chisinau City Council demonstrated what the excessively ambitious democrats are capable of – and the Communists, too, will spoil plans and will pull strings to prevent a viable democratic coalition from taking shape. It is important that there aren't any antinational forces behind some of the so-called democrats. If there are, it will be hard to give back the population an Euroatlantic and pro-Romanian hope – the only one able to save us from misery and align us with the Western values and standards, which everyone in Moldova should embrace for the general welfare. I thank you all and wish you a Happy New Year!