In autumn the people will make a strategic choice for Moldova’s future. They will choose between the strategic European integration vector and the Eurasian one, expert Igor Botan, executive director of the Association for Participatory Democracy ADEPT, said in the public debate “Priorities of the political class and Moldovan society in an electoral year. Position of the opposition” that was staged by IPN News Agency in cooperation with Radio Moldova.
Igor Botan said that the strategic choice in the EU was made many years ago for some countries. They face the post-choice syndrome as, when entering the EU, they understood that the countries that are hyper-developed profit from the situation and develop further, while those that are on the periphery become poorer owing to corruption and backwardness. “But Moldova hasn’t yet made the strategic choice. We are to make it in autumn, in the parliamentary elections. The choice is the equivalent of a referendum. Those who win the elections, win the development course of Moldova: pro-European or pro-Eurasian,” said the political analyst.
He also said that the parties have declared and undeclared priorities. The basic priorities of society are enshrined in the Constitution, while the circumstance-based priorities derive from the situation existing in Moldova and society is divided here. Some are for European integration, while others are for Eurasian integration. “Society is fragmented based on a number of criteria. There is no common priority for the whole society,” stated Igor Botan.
According to him, in the 20 years of independence, the parties came to power for political and administrative rent. “This rent makes the politicians renounce the salary and we are put in the situation to believe that they dedicate their time for serving the public interests. A question appears here – if they serve the public interests, why do they argue? They argue because they cannot share out the areas from which they collect money in the form of political and administrative rent,” said the analyst.
The public debate “Priorities of the political class and Moldovan society in an electoral year. Position of the opposition” is the 26th of the series of debates “Development of political culture by public debates”, which are supported by the German foundation Hanns Seidel.