When the political elites discredit themselves, other elites strengthen their positions. This is the case of Moldova, where civil society shortly became more credible than the ruling party, political pundit Dionis Cenusa says in an analysis article for IPN.
The expert noted that this was most evident in the context of the image crisis suffered by the Democratic Party when it adopted the electoral system change. As a result, the voice of the civil society leaders entered a direct competition with the Democrats in convincing the public opinion.
According to Dionis Cenusa, the increased authority at home and in Brussels transformed civil society, alongside the extraparliamentary opposition, into the most powerful rival of the government.
Civil society in Moldova, as the one in Georgia, works in the easiest conditions compared with the other EaP states. But the inexistence of major restrictions does not automatically increase the efficiency of civil society in preventing abuses on the part of the authorities, stated the author.
Thus, the opposition on the part of the NGO sector wasn’t sufficient to stop the electoral system change in Moldova and in Georgia in 2017. Despite the arguments of the Venice Commission, the efforts of civil society had a moderate to reduced impact. So, the nongovernmental sector cannot substitute the lack of a free public agenda in manipulating the governmental propaganda or the lack of a powerful and authentic opposition in Parliament.
The politologist considers the government benefits from the rapprochement between representatives of civil society and the opposition and, simultaneously, from the denying of any complicity. This inevitably weakens the voice and positions of civil society when this intends to sensitize the public opinion in different issues.
Civil society is a significant pool of knowledge and expertise, but this cannot play in several camps concurrently. Subsequently, civic activism should not be mixed up and used to disguise participation in political rivalries.
The impartiality of civil society is the key weapon in fighting the artificiality of reforms fueled by the government and a valuable source for the pro-reform extraparliamentary opposition, concluded Dionis Cenusa.
