[- Is the 16th anniversary of independence somehow distinct from other anniversaries?] Eleven years ago, I was writing for “Mesagerul” (“Messenger”), the publication of the Party of Democratic Forces. I was editor-in-chief of this paper, which was very pessimistic about the Independence, for four years. It was the time of the agro-interfrontist government and the prospect was gloomy, but not to the extent to which the things developed afterwards. I mean the voting of the communists in 2001, 2003 and 2005. These developments shattered the hopes of our citizens with pro-European options in a period of the shortest possible transition to a civilized and prosperous Euro-Atlantic society in which the man would be free and safe. It is regrettable that we have a poor informed society, what explains the open being of the communists-capitalists in power in Moldova since 2001. I say ‘open’ because they have always been in power – except those nine months of reforming government of the Ion Sturza Cabinet. Moldova’s poor positioning in all the possible and impossible international rankings is the result of the retrograde governments. Unhappily, it took six years (since 2001) until the people started to vote for the democratic forces in the local elections. As to the question about the distinctive features of the 16th anniversary, they reside in the beginning of communists’ dethroning in the recent local elections. The National Liberal Party that I chair in this year’s electoral platform had the objective to overthrow the communists in a democratic way, by poll, with the prospect of definitively removing them from power in the future parliamentary elections. And the results are encouraging for our Euro-Atlantic destiny. The democratic forces manage almost two thirds of the local public administrations. We now have tow priorities – the dialogue, the consensus of the noncommunist forces and to attract the support of the Western partners so as to deal with the deplorable communist heritage, through their assistance as well. I think that the people with pro-Western perspectives this year should go out to celebrate the Our Language Day and the Independence Day in the Great National Assembly Square in the center of Chisinau and defy the populist holidays of Soviet mentality. [ - What successes and failures Moldova has witnessed during the 16 years of independence?] The evolution of people’s mentality is one of the most important achievements of Moldova in 16 years of independence. Despite the unfavorable political, economic and social situation, we have citizens that succeed – go abroad at their own expense and see another life there, a life which they transfer, as they can, to Moldova. They take the life in their hands in a liberal spirit, invest in their children’s studies, choose the European integration in surveys, opt for Romanian citizenship, start to acknowledge an evident thing – it is a shame that we lag so much behind the Baltic States, Romania and Bulgaria, Ukraine, and even Belarus. Our citizens become aware that we cannot follow the Russian model as a model of democracy and of economic development; that we must become members of the Euro-Atlantic world. An achievement at political level is the signing of the NATO-Moldova Individual Plan of Action, which was imposed from outside rather than wanted by the communist governors who always believed that they will be able to endlessly cheat the population and the Western partners, trying to obtain money from the West and to promote the Soviet policies. I cannot mention here the EU-Moldova Action Plan because it exists only in written form, while at practical level the Europeanization of the society is not felt. As member of the parliamentary commission for foreign policy and European integration, I can express my total dissatisfaction with the formality of communists’ pro-European commitment because the laws or the amendments to the laws introduced cannot pass the European-conformity test and are only the expression of the greedy interest of the ruling mafia clans and of their allies, of any kind. As regards the failures, I would refer to the opposite of the asserted. Moldova is ‘famous’ for its en masse exodus, for the trafficking in human beings, drugs and arms and for the smuggling of alcoholic drinks and cigarettes. The Transnistrian zone is a black spot not officially controlled by our state and by the Europeans. A lot of people go abroad and the children remain without parental care. The retrograde and corrupt governments, which permanently hindered the development of the private sector, cannot attract foreign investment and create new jobs. We do not have the intended economic growth and there are no encouraging macroeconomic indicators because the present government and their agrarian predecessors strangled the free initiative, the small and medium-sized business, and the liberalization of the economic areas and of exports. Everything is monopolized, is under the protectionism of the state or of the antinational groups in power, whose interests are protected and even promoted by the so-called Center for Combating Corruption and Organized Crime, which was criticized by two US ambassadors when they completed their missions. Corruption is generalized and, as long as it will exist, the planned European and American money will not come. Moldova’s inclusion in the US Millennium Challenge Account Program can become an unexploited chance or a chance that will be employed only after the ruling communists are replaced by democrats. The Parliament is controlled by the president’s company headed by the antinational, anti-Romania and anti-NATO Mark Tcaciuc, who designed and implemented scenarios with the “integrated history, who promotes aberrant anthropological schemes and who probably considers that Moldova cannot be administered and should be transformed into a banana-growing country or into a Russian province. Another failure is that we did not fulfill the calendar plan for the adoption and amendment of the legislation so as we are not longer monitored by the Council of Europe. This monitoring is another shape of Moldova. The red-orange partnership of 2005-2007 between the Christian-Democrat opposition and the communists failed, the least to say, and did not Europeanize the latter. There is yet no freedom of expression and public mass media, despite the adoption of a new legislation on broadcasting, fact probed by the civil society that monitors the implementation of the new law as well as by the Western decision makers. We do not have an impartial justice. The justice is not financed according to the law so as we could confidently say that we have a state of law. People persecuted by the current administration are currently held in prisons and not real criminals as it should. The Opposition and the economic agents continue to be the pressurized and threatened by the governmental agents that carry out the orders of the President, who says who should be tried and how, and who should be arrested and when. The foreign policy is inadequate or there is no such, we do not have a doctrine on security and foreign policy, so as it is clear which space we definitely choose. The noncommunist political class does not have the courage and will to declare the necessity of withdrawing from the CIS and this arouses a question – what kind of leaders will we have after the communists and will they jointly plead for holding accountable the current leaders and their reliable allies, who seem to have been practicing different abuses, with the consent of the presidential family, from 2001? Or the ones that will come after the communists will make pacts with the “reformed” side – in an opportunist way – of the present communist party? Among other big failures are of course the non-withdrawal of the Russian troops from the territory of Moldova and the non-settlement of the Transnistrian conflict, the unclear relations with Russia and the bad relations with Romania, the ‘eternal’ instability ascertained by foreign experts and felt by the ordinary man, the energy dependence on Russia and the poor living conditions of the people, who cannot have a material and financial stability and cope with the galloping price hikes of all the goods. A fundamental failure is the fact that we had governments that did not want to use the chance to go alongside Romania in the NATO and the European Union, to modify the stupid status of neutrality stipulated in Moldova’s Constitution that would permit joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Western security system. We have not even followed the advice of the Council of Europe rapporteur for Moldova Josette Durrieu, to mount the last carriage of the Romanian train to the EU. More and more Romanian and European decision makers see that Moldova is a problem-state that rejected through its Anti-Romanian governments the chance of being among the young member states of the European community. Sixteen years after the so-called Independence, the Republic of Moldova has not yet decided which space it wants to enter – the stable and prosperous Western space or the Euro-Asian space dominated by chaos and unforeseeable situations. We did not have administrations with a dignified behavior as in the Baltic States, which are now members of the NATO and the EU. The people of Moldova, a state created artificially, the consequence and permanent victim of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, did not back and push to power the politicians that intended to make from Moldova a prosperous and safe liberal Western country. That is why the question “can or cannot Moldova be a real state?!” is still at issue. [Why do you think Moldova is classed as the poorest state in Europe, with a recent study by the US magazine “Foreign Policy” ranking Moldova as the least stable country in Europe on the eve of Independence? When and how will it get rid of these tags?] I have anticipated the answer. We are in a vicious circle. We do not have a truly public mass media with political pluralism and pluralism of opinion through which the people could learn different viewpoints, which would generate comparisons of ideas, opinions and proposals, which will report on the cost of reforms and willingness of the Western people to help us. Not even a part of the Opposition wanted a really public mass media, considering that this freedom should be doled out by the potentates of the day, regardless of their orientation – from the right-right wing or from the retrograde and antinational left wing. Not possessing diverse information, the people obtain it through foreign channels, according to their possibilities, or remain uninformed and change with difficulty the electoral options and therefore vote for the illusory past, not knowing the cost of a civilized, liberal future, which can be yet obtained by joint responsibility. Another handicap of our society is the ethnic vote. The Russian language speakers constantly vote for the left-wing socialists and communists and not the reforming forces, although the state granted unconditionally Moldovan citizenship to all the residents of Moldova during the first years of Independence. I consider that the ethnic vote keeps us stuck in the past and we cannot vote according to the reforming/anti-reforming principle. There are many Romanians in the countryside that vote for the past, being afraid of the future. It looks that this year’s local elections broke the stereotype of ethnic vote. Many Russian language speakers gave a vote of no confidence to the communists and voted in Chisinau for Dorin Chirtoaca in despair and in hope. His victory is the result of the anticommunist battle of all the democrats, including the result of my work. During all these years I have explained in the Parliament why we should not vote for the communists. In such a way, if the democrats manage not to disappoint the electorate that showed their trust in the future and in youth, the vicious circle with a state that votes for Soviet symbols in the XXI century will be broken. Afterwards, through great difficulties, we will head for a new society, for a state of law, for an impartial non-politicized justice, for closeness to the EU. The political program of the National Liberal Party includes the concept of an interstate Romania-Moldova union, a reform acceleration mechanism, which was also promoted during the recent election campaign. With the support of Romania, of the society from the second Romanian state, the Republic of Moldova should become eligible for the EU as soon as possible. This concept also means a strategic pro-European bilateral partnership with Romania, concept that can become a reality after 2009 if voted by the democrat Parliament. The concept will be considered implemented after Moldova becomes an EU member and will find itself in the common Romanian space alongside the Romanians that are already in the European community. We know that according to the official statistics we have 100,000 Romanian citizens and another 800,000 applications for regaining the Romanian citizenship waiting to be examined. This fact cannot be neglected. The Romanians from the Republic of Moldova, who know the horrors of the communist regime, should be benefit from a historical justice and regain the Romanian and European citizenship, both as a moral recompense for the sufferings and a reward for postponing the liquidation of the consequences of the Hitler-Stalin Pact. [Do you think that independent Moldova’s strategic objective of European integration is irreversible?] Despite my reserve as regards this problem, I think that it is irreversible. We are in a globalized world and neither Voronin nor other people can do what they think or what the anthropologists like Marc Tcaciuc suggests them to. In 2005, when the communists realized that they want to be European, I said several things published in some paper articles which came true. I said that the communists will never be Europeans because this will mean that they should enter a space of legality, competition and competitiveness, which is contrary to their totalitarian nature. The embezzlement of public funds for the sake of populism and not only discovered today by the Chisinau City Hall as well as the similar heritage in other settlements administered by the communists until present clearly show that I was right because the second thing I said was that Voronin and his presidential company declared themselves pro-European in February 2005 only to avoid an orange revolution, to promote Soviet, antinational policies, counting on money from the West. The communists are not the political expression of the 80% of Moldovan-Romanians that make up the majority population of the second Romanian state, the Republic of Moldova. The communists remain the expression of the anti-Romanian and anti-European forces from Russia, promoting openly or indirectly their geo-strategic interests in all they decide. The third thing I said was that only the democratic forces will be able to give content and expression to the pro-European orientation officially declared by Moldova. This orientation, among others, was declared as a major strategic objective through a Parliament Decision in September 1998, after the financial default in Russia, when Moldova committed itself to reorienting its exports to the West. The fact that about 70% of the Moldovans see the pro-EU orientation as our clear destiny and 59% see Romania as an advocate and natural support on the path to the EU shows that we can be optimist. Helped by the US, by the whole Euro-Atlantic community, by other benevolent countries we will escape from Russia’s influence, will manage to get rid of the Russian troops and will bring Transnistria, without threats to us, into the international space of legality. But we have to manifest a firm and clear political will and make constant appeals to the international community to obtain a solid support from our partners in convincing Russia to recognize de facto our independence and sovereignty and to withdraw its troops and backing for the secessionist regime in Tiraspol. [A year after changing the name of the national holiday from Independence Day into Republic’s Day, do you think that the change was reasonable?] Of course not. The change forms part of the range of antinational decisions made by the anti-Romanian communists. Pretending to be “great Stalinists”, they are the ones that have oscillating policies and cannot decide which space Moldova should enter, which is undoubtedly the Euro-Atlantic one. That is why they do want they want. They change sacred things. They want to wipe them out of the collective historical memory, considering that they will grow up generations of Mancourts similar to them. They bring to paroxysm false holidays from the period of the Second World War, divide the society and the war veterans in two camps, cannot recognize, as the Council of Europe recommends, the crimes of Stalinism and of the Communist regime, which killed one million Romanians, considers the participants in the war on the Nistru as the ‘Romanian agents” and does not honor them either morally, politically or materially. The communists are terribly afraid of the union with Romania, which will occur sooner or later within the European community. The fact that all the Romanians will reunite inside a common area, make them oppose Moldova’s accession to the NATO and the EU, and fuel the reforms. They reject any help from and the friendly hand of Romania, begging Russian and other states for support. But there are already many Russian language speakers that want to be in Romania, where the legality is taking size, the private sector is developing and is supported, where the accession to the NATO and the EU offered stability and considerable financial means for adjusting the infrastructure and different areas to the European standards. I think that many things will test the Moldovan democrats after we win in 2009. I also mean the repositioning of the holidays, including religious, and many other things that were distorted by the retrograde governing of the Voronin administration. [ - Did the Moldovan people deserve the administrations that ruled during the independence period? Being earlier and now in power or aspiring to power, would you like such a people?] I dare to say, violating in a way the Constitution, that we do not have here a people in the classical meaning of the word, from the angle of the international right, but a population. We are Romanians and the Romanian people is the one that was formed of about 23 million in Romania plus several millions in Moldova, Bucovina, Hertza Region. There are two Romanian states – Romania and the Republic of Moldova. I do not accept when the Romanians from Romania and the Romanians from Diaspora are angry with the Romanians from Bessarabia for how they are. I tell them: why don’t you understand that to a great extent they are so because they were abandoned by the West and Romania? It is clear that this happened owing to the geopolitical situation and to the Russian dictate of 1940, which led to the denationalization of the Bessarabians, who now must be helped to return to their identity and to their nation consciousness. This is the reason why these Bessarabians, who went through suffering, were deported to Siberia, persecuted by the Communist regime from Romania, which was hunting the ones that left in 1940, together with the Romanian authorities, subjected to organized famine, brought to cannibalism - still vote because of fear, unconsciously, under the threat of the ones on which they depend. They are yet to become free. When they become truly free, the communist hypocrites and their lackeys will not be supported anymore. That’s why we cannot talk about such a people, population, or electorate. We should speak about how we can help them constantly and with patience by information, dialogue, support, and understanding. As MP, I have a lot of complaints from the people over the desperate situation in which they are. The things change slightly in a communist society terrorized, fully controlled and managed in a dictatorial manner. I regret that the people remain unsatisfied and the government remains imperturbable and cold at people’s complaints. Let us hope yet that the anticommunist vote from this year’s local elections will be consolidated in the parliamentary elections and that we will be proud of our citizens that will not believe the lies and populist promises of the communist hypocrites. But we will have not to disappoint the ones that believe in the Democrats, because it is easy to gain the trust, but difficult to restore it.