The fight against corruption cannot bring results overnight, while the most visible results will be achieved not only by revolutionarily restructuring the institutions that must fight corruption, but also by mental, behavioral revolution that should not be expected from the rulers only, said Romanian Ambassador to Moldova Marius Lazurca.

In the public debate “Romania as a model for Moldova’s European course”, staged by IPN News Agency in partnership with Radio Moldova, the Romanian diplomat said the fight against corruption started in Romania before the entry into the EU and the corruption combating infrastructure formed part of the pre-accession commitments of Romania. Moldova should learn from this experience of Romania. The fight against corruption is a very complex phenomenon and results in fighting it cannot be achieved overnight.

Marius Lazurca noted that corruption fighting consent is not possible without self-limitation on the part of the political elite, which should set honesty and integrity limits on the public behavior in the name of the perception of common good. Corruption can be rooted out by mental revolution and by such behavior on the part of whole society, not only the political class.

“The society in Romania found in time courage to denounce the heavyweights and to go to the Prosecutor’s Office to file complaints against a politician, a judge, etc. Society must have enough courage and freedom to create mechanisms for exerting pressure on the institutions and politicians,” said the ambassador.

He added that he is optimistic and believes that Moldova follows the right path in the fight against corruption with the suitable partners that can help it to cope, but the people must know that the main victims of corruption for a period will include only policemen, professors, etc., until the political class realizes the necessity of ensuring a balance between the common good and personal good.

The debate “Romania as a model for Moldova’s European course” is the 30th of the series of debates “Development of political culture in public debates” that are organized by IPN in concert with Radio Moldova and are supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany.