Even if the old pro-UE forces are discredited or collapsed and the new ones haven’t yet come into possession of instruments of power, as polls show, the pro-European sympathies recover, expert in political sciences Dionis Cenusa says in an analysis article for IPN News Agency.
According to him, simultaneously with the multiplication of the pro-European disposition, the support for the Eurasian Union decreases.
The politologist noted that a number of internal and external factors contributed to the revitalization of the European course.
Firstly, the EU conditionality turns into an unpleasant leverage for the Moldovan authorities. Furthermore, in Moldova’s case, for the first time in the history of the EU’s relations with third countries, there are used political preconditions in exchange for macro-financial assistance. The fate of this assistance depends on the distortion level of the electoral competition following the introduction of the mixed-member electoral system and on the functioning of democratic institutions in general (rule of law, mass media, human rights).
Secondly, the events in the EU transmit a positive wave of pro-European emotions, including in the European neighborhood. Thus, a series of acid cases that made the rapprochement with the EU be associated with an unfavorable and even dangerous process were closed. More exactly, the anti-European populism was stopped at least for four years following the elections in France and Germany. The intensity of the crisis of migrants and asylum seekers decreased considerably, while the Brexit initiated by the UK becomes very defective and disadvantageous for the British citizens.
Last but not least, the share of measures to counteract the Russian propaganda that is reused by the pro-Russian forces in Moldova increased in the Republic of Moldova, in the EU and even globally (by involving Facebook, Twitter). Consequently, it is harder to lie about the EU and the credibility of Russia diminishes continuously, the country being unconditionally associated with the main source of anti-West and anti-EU misinformation.
However, any crisis caused by the current government in the reform process, harsh reactions on the part of the EU and/or the unjustified failures of the extraparliamentary opposition can anytime affect the yet fragile restoration of the pro-European feelings, concluded Dionis Cenusa.
