“Don’t forget that I’m the candidate of the PDM, the main ruling pro-European party and according to voters’ preferences. It is the party that assumed this role at the start of this year and showed that it can govern efficiently. This thing was clearly confirmed by the foreign partners, from Europe up to the U.S. By good cooperation with the Government and Parliament, I will fulfill the commitments I make before the voters”. These are some of the trump cards that Marian Lupu, who heads the lists of candidates on the ballot, considers that he has in the October 30 presidential elections. He developed these in the first interview of a series of electoral interviews of IPN News Agency.
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- “I hear, listen to and solve.” This is the electoral slogan with which you began the election campaign. Why this slogan?

- The slogan is inspired from the reality, from people. In the meetings we have at local level, these say that they expect the future President to be a person who would hear them, would listen to their needs and would deal with their problems. They do not wait for a President who would come to do politics from this post or to start political wars and generate instability. The people want a President who would become involved, with experience, who knows how to keep a balance between the state institutions whose duty is to improve people’s lives. Many can enumerate the problems faced by the country, but the people want a President who comes up with solutions to these and would have the support of the state powers and would be able to solve them. Everyone is tired of empty words. I don’t think someone wants to experience a new disappointment. That’s why I decided that my slogan will be a simple one, but will clearly show what the people need.

- Why you can solve the problems, while other candidates cannot?

- Let’s take them one by one, starting with those few who have bigger chances, as polls showed until now. What can Igor Dodon solve? In the upcoming elections, he is not a candidate, but a fulfiller of a political project designed outside Moldova. I refer to a very sophisticated project one of whose goals is to federalize the country and tear Moldova into pieces. Dodon wants to become President in order to stop the European integration and end the Association Agreement, even if these offered the Moldovans the biggest benefits and he declared this for numerous times lately. He would be happy if the Moldovans were deprived of the right to travel freely in Europe, for example. He has a task - to weaken Moldova, to divide it and to humiliate again the Moldovan citizens. That’s why Dodon is the biggest danger in this election because the project in which he became involved is clearly aimed against the Republic of Moldova and its people.

What the others can resolve? Maia Sandu wants the situation in the country to be destabilized, as those who still represent Filat’s PLDM want. Her separation from the party that brought her on the political arena is purely formal because namely they managed the previous governments, created the disaster at Banca de Economii, the story of the stolen US$1 billion and others. You saw that Maia Sandu asked the IMF and the European partners to stop helping the country, which is the people of Moldova. It’s clear that she wants the country to be in a crisis: the worse the better. What can she resolve now? Nothing. She can make only promises. But the people need concrete actions, not a false political hero, as they had some several years ago. A Head of State must yet have knowledge of international relations and economy and, why not, have experience in negotiating in favor of the people with political parties. I do not really see worthy contenders with such qualities, with all respect for them.

What can Nastase solve even if we multiply his actions by two, especially because he has the Topas behind him, who are two criminal businessmen convicted including for the stealing committed at the BEM? He also says that the first thing he will do as Head of State is to destabilize the country and to bring it to the knees of his relative Topa. He then wants to do as President what he didn’t manage to do as prosecutor and lawyer – to help everyone get off scot-free, to obtain the dropping of the criminal cases started against them and to rid his sponsors and the sponsors of the Platform “Dignity and Truth” of punishment. I remind that he agreed with Dodon and Usatyi to suspend the European integration of Moldova, as he declared in a TV program. So, this is what he can solve and why he was sent on a mission by the group of criminals from Frankfurt to run.

- What can you deal with?

- You know well that I’m a statesman and a person who respects the intuitions, the state powers and knows how to cooperate with these. I always promoted conciliation, peace and work in the country. I held high-ranking posts, but I never kept to them. I renounced the seats when time came because it is normal to do so if we want things to go on. Don’t forget that I’m the candidate of the PDM, the main ruling pro-European party and according to voters’ preferences. It is the party that assumed this role at the start of this year and showed that it can govern efficiently. This thing was clearly confirmed by the foreign partners, from Europe up to the U.S. By good cooperation with the Government and Parliament, I will fulfill the commitments I make before the voters.

Surely, only a President who cooperates with the main state institutions can solve something and can do many good things. What can the candidates who announce that generating a political crisis is the first thing they will do when they become President do? But they will be unable to do this as we will make sure to maintain a stable parliamentary alliance. But they will do harm. Such a crisis could bring again months and years of instability and the investments and economy will be paralyzed. This means direct impact on the people, both those who can work and especially those who are socially deprived. We only started to rehabilitate the economy after it was left in the situation when there was no money for salaries and pensions. Imagine what direct negative effects the people will experience if we return to political scandals.

Moldova does not need a Head of State with dictatorial behavior or people who are against the system, who do not realize the role of the institutions, or candidates who are unable to honorably represent the country in the international relations. I already made a call to the other candidates to show decency and common sense and responsibility in relation to the national interest. But, regrettably, they are busy making electoral statements and with PR, especially in the international press, by which they do a lot of harm to the Republic of Moldova.

- At foreign level, what kind of President does Moldova need? You made a tour through key capitals during the last few weeks. What is the quintessence of the reactions there?

- First of all, Moldova needs a President who knows to represent Moldova well, to say only nice things about the country and to be preoccupied with the identification of external resources for improving the living conditions at internal level. We do not need someone who is preoccupied with the method of keeping the country in a blockage. We need a mature, wise and calm President who would cultivate friendship and respect. The hysterical ones are not welcome in the great chancelleries of the world. Moldova needs friends and a President who knows to make himself respected can bring many benefits to the country, from fully regaining the foreign partners’ confidence to ensuring foreign investments that are so important for creating jobs and collecting the necessary amounts in the budget, for increasing the salaries and pensions. In short, responsibility is the key word. This is the message we received from Brussels, New York and other big cities and European capitals. So, I invite the people to vote responsibly: the President does not replace the Prime Minister, but is the Government’s partner and is given preeminence when it is about the representation of the country. I do not want our country to be represented by people who promote other interests than Moldova’s interests. Some of these work for the agenda of another state, while others for personal vainglory or for groups of thieves and criminals.

- Who is the candidate that you consider the worthiest?

- I have only one real rival in these elections - Igor Dodon – and only one program that I must counteract – the political project to change the pro-European course of the Republic of Moldova and to federalize the country in which Dodon was engaged. He is actually the enemy of all the Moldovan patriots and of the country’s European future. So, he is my enemy in elections. Dodon is really dangerous because he safeguards the interests of another state in these elections. I’m sure that if he becomes President, he will stop the pro-European project. His mission is very clear and no matter how hard he tries now to say something good about Europe out of electoral interests, you saw that he remains firm on his position as regards the termination of the Moldova–EU Association Agreement and the redirection of the country to the Customs Union, which is something illusory and can bring no welfare to the people. It is like you want to take the place of the pilot of a plane in order to crash it intentionally. The plane is Moldova, while the passengers are its people and Dodon wants to be the pilot as he thinks he can be saved by the Russian parachute. It is cynical, but this is the reality to which this man directs us. I’m afraid the parachute is enough not even for those who still think whether to vote for Dodon or not.

- Aren’t Maia Sandu and Andrei Nastase your opponents?

- My opponent is the person who has an officially declared project against the Moldovan people. This is Igor Dodon, who has real chances of implementing his diversionist plan, if we allow him to and will not tell the people what he plans to do. I will focus my energy on stopping this man who wants to crash Moldova. These two have no plan for the future and do not have big chances and are anyway busy with the underground struggles between them.

- What about Dumitru Chubashenko?

- He is only a figurant in the campaign. He works for remuneration as they used to do in Filat’s party, in relation to the candidates from the parliamentary list. Now this is Usatyi’s weapon against Dodon. They also play a match on the left and there is rivalry similar to that between Maia Sandu and Nastase, who cannot decide is who is a better candidate. This is what they will do if they become Head of State – struggles determined by vainglory and frustrations.

- You already had several incidents in the campaign, during electoral meetings. Why did the people boo you?

- I already presented video evidence showing that those were acts of electoral hooliganism planned by Nastase or Usatyi – the two extremist political partners. There was no problem in the electoral meetings. It was evident for those who attended that it was a kind of electoral provocation at the corner of a street. We already informed the CEC and will insist that the law should be applied so that the political hooligans are penalized. Usatyi and Nastase show cowardice and that they are unable to take part in an electoral competition and that they resort to barbarous methods and to a dirty campaign, in the absence of arguments. We definitely cannot go down to their level as we do not want our lads from the PDM to answer similarly. We focus on our plans and will demand that the institutions enforce the law.

- A number of recent polls show the PDM’s rating has improved, somehow surprisingly. What caused this improvement, including in your rating?

- I hope everyone convinced themselves that the polls are commissioned by independent organizations that are rather critical of the PDM. But there is nothing surprising when the people choose normality, not scandals provided by other politicians. Elections are held to allow the people to choose between candidates, their projects and their possibilities of protecting people’s interests. The people are not naïve as my opponents consider and daily manipulate and disseminate lies about me and the PDM. Do you think the Platform “Dignity and Truth“ and “Our Party”, which are the main denigrators of the PDM, have now a rating below our party’s rating by accident? This is the effect of the behavior of these parties and of the fact that they showed nothing on the political arena, if only evil goals. These two parties exploited poverty and people’s sorrows and gave the people hope that they can solve their problems and then built parties and forgot about people’s problems. They cynically used the people for narrow political goals. What neither Dodon nor his two colleagues understood is that the people cannot be lied to endlessly and in the elections they will pay for the way in which they treated the people.

Meanwhile, together with my colleagues, we restore the economy, develop real reforms and daily solve people’s problems, and need to deal with these things better after the elections, in an energetic formula, by very good cooperation between the President, Government and the parliamentary alliance.

- Maia Sandu said that if you reach runoff, the elections would have been rigged.

- Maia Sandu is scared of what is going on and I understand her humanly. She only now realized that she got into the trap of the Topas and Nastase, that they kept her hostage using the idea of a common candidate in order to remove her from the electoral race. She now realizes this, but lost precious time that cannot be recovered. While she was lured by the idea of a common candidate, Nastase campaigned intensely and played dirtily so as to gain ground in front of her. They behaved very badly towards Maia. I’m convinced that the Topas have never intended to withdraw their marionette and to support Maia Sandu. Now I think everyone realizes this. If it had happened so by chance, they would have contaminated her and destroyed her profile of candidate.

- Are these elections geopolitical?

- I would prefer to focus on the internal agenda, of the people, because the country’s development course was already decided by the Association Agreement with the EU. But there is the PSRM that is drawing this campaign to a geopolitical area because Dodon cannot discuss the real problems of the people. He does not have an internal project, for the Moldovans, whom he only ‘loves’, but does not have what to offer to them. Therefore he offers them the return to the geopolitical war. We, those from the PDM, consider that the partnership with the East is important and should be maintained, but I will show in elections that the pro-European project is the only one that offers the Republic of Moldova prospects and progress. However, I will allocate enough time for discussing the internal agenda with the people so as to listen to them and to solve their problems as the solutions in many cases are based on European assistance.

- Can you formulate, in brief, a message for the people, why they should vote for you?

- I call on the people to vote for a person who, as President, will be able to really solve the problems and will have the necessary instruments for this, based on a powerful team and on cooperation with the main institutions and state powers. I call upon them not to believe political adventurers and dangerous experiments that can solve absolutely nothing. They must avoid false heroes and remember the disappointment and pain that such heroes caused to them the previous years. The Republic of Moldova needs normality, quietness and peace in society, stability and acceleration of development and reforms so that the state administration works for the people, as in Europe. We already started to fight corruption at a scale and in areas that couldn’t have been reached until now. If we want to move on, we need institutional cooperation so as to rapidly do reforms and obtain welfare in the Moldovan families. These elements form the basis of the program with which I run for the office of President of the Republic of Moldova.