2007 was a difficult year. Interview with leader of National Liberal Party Viatlia Pavlicenco. SERIES OF INFO-PRIM NEO INVESTIGATIONS “HOW WAS 2007”

[ - How was the political year 2007 for Moldova and what are your political forecasts for 2008?] 2007 was a difficult year. I refer to the general events in Moldova and to the way in which this year developed for the National Liberal Party (PNL) and for me, as political person. As MP, I must say that the adopted laws and the amendments to the laws have two meanings in the Parliament. One meaning is that the Communist Party wants to show the foreign observers and officials that though they are Communists, they have a reform-committed Government that implements liberal reforms. In general, this does not happen or the laws are applied in the interest of the governors and of Communists’ allies. The second meaning is the direct satisfaction of Communists’ clan interests in order to take everything under control, especially the segments that do not surrender to the mafiotic group from the presidential office, where there is the nucleus of corruption and of businesses that bring personal and electoral money designed to preserve the power for the Communists. I also refer to the appointment to post of the obedient presidential advisers or even of the members of this presidential clan that constantly promotes a double policy – it seems that they go towards Europe but in fact they make everything possible not to make progress on this path. The Opposition’s proposals are not taken account of or serve as material for political plagiarism. That’s why it is a waste of time to fight with them. They are a presidential voting machine, an impenetrable wall. An accomplishment of 2007 is the local elections as a result of which the Democratic forces took over the local power from the Communist satrap-feudalists in 21 raions. The Communists reanimated the anti-Romania foreign policy, which, in fact, also has an internal aim. They revived the anti-Romania state of spirit typical of the Soviet practices that come from Moscow and from the USSR Bolsheviks that had only one goal as regards Bessarabia – not to let it escape to Romania. Moldova witnesses economic failure and the entire disastrous consequences will be evident only after the Communist regime collapses. The private sector cannot develop in continuation as the most successful businesses are impertinently appropriated by the children of the presidential family that started to gather the second billion, probably for grandchildren. Voronin does not want to bear responsibility for anything as if it is not he who has headed this Romanian state from 2000, when he together with PPCD caused the downfall of Sturza Government. The living standards have not improved, but the prices have increased, including of bread, and the public utilities are more expensive. Though promising and boasting, Voronin did not solve the Transnistrian conflict. The Communists lost the elections because the people cannot endure the difficult living conditions anymore. The capitalist Communists continue to monopolise the land, the agriculture is not modernized and the farmers are not effectively supported. Perhaps the investments have increased but not in the Moldovan state, but in the Voronin Family. As regards the real investments, Moldova is one of the last countries in Europe by this indicator. The Communist Government forgot about the promise to connect the beneficiaries to the gas pipeline for only 2,000 lei. No cheap credits are released to private businesses. The so-called liberal reforms of Voronin were designed to launder the money of the persons protected by the communists, whose unpaid taxes had been forgiven, stimulating thus fiscal indiscipline in relation to the economic entities that are good managers and pay taxes fairly. As to human rights, experts’ reports say that we do not have something like this in the country; we do not have freedom of expression, public space for debates, justice. The League for the Defence of Human Rights of Moldova (LADOM) and the Civic Initiative for Defending and Promoting Human Rights in Moldova ascertained that the civil and political rights of the people were most often violated during 2006-2007. Until 2001, the people saw their social and economic rights most often violated. The rights are nowadays violated by the public functionaries and by representatives of the law enforcement bodies. I refer to the obstructed access to justice, violation of the right to life, human trafficking, discrimination, gender equality, right to freedom of association, access to information, freedom of the media, prisoners’ rights etc. After losing 21 raions, Chisinau city and southern Gagauzia, the Communists are afraid not to fail at the parliamentary elections of 2009. They do everything possible to avoid this. What do they do? They show their electorate, which is intentionally not informed, that they are again with Moscow, with Putin and that they are against Romania. In fact, they are against the EU and NATO. They divide the society into Russian and Romanians, hoping to get an advantage from this. As MP, I have always reacted to these antinational manifestations of the Communist regime. It is a pity that we do not have more possibilities of holding public debates where the people could freely express their opinions about the happenings. The live broadcast of the Parliament’s meetings was halted in 2007. According to my information, this happened after we proposed setting up a commission that would investigate the legality of the property of Oleg Voronin, whose direct or indirect activities are reported on by the press. As to PNL, we took part in the local election and I think that we achieved good results after only three months of existence. We ranked among the five parties with councillors in Rezina district after new elections were held there. We conducted talks to join the Liberal forces, but some of the Liberal parties believe that there are no preconditions yet for a more consistent dialogue. But this dialogue could appear suddenly after the PCRM and PPCD increase again the electoral ceiling and ban the electoral blocks. I must note that the Democrats that joined forces in the local and district councils are not yet sure: is PPCD in the government or in the Opposition? I ask myself this too because I remember that in 2005, the Christian Democratic People’s Party (PPCD) was wondering how the Democratic Party can be in Opposition, taking part in the Electoral Block “Moldova Democrata”, and formed alliances with the Communists in the local councils simultaneously. I was against this. I voted against the creation of the Electoral Block for this reason. But I also disagree with the actions of PPCD which constantly votes together with PCRM in the Parliament, after calling on the Democrats to unite and fight against the Communists after the elections of May 2007. Returning to PNL, we strengthened the ranks, work as usual, had a productive meeting of the National Political Delegation on December 22, 2007 and will continue to be active. Last year we faced a problem of image and team because the founders of PLD, with whom we had clear and constructive discussions on unification, changed the strategy at a certain moment and started to attract our members instead of being a magnet for the “new and undecided voters” as they promised when launching the initiative group at a news conference. I don’t know what the reason was, maybe internal or external pressure. The time will show. But we learned the lesson “as in a family of Liberals”. We also learned the lesson when the Liberal Party criticised us unfairly for the idea of the Interstate Union Romania-Moldova, being caught by the suggestions and frustrations of PPCD, which disappointed afterwards the Liberal Party too. God will judge them. I can make forecasts for 2008, but I would not say much. I think it will be a lost year. The state administration together with Voronin will pursue their determined aim – “no Romanian and no Democrat should enter the next Parliament”. But every evil has a good side. Maybe this will revolt the people who are tired of poverty, disappointments and humiliation. The evil and negative attitude towards the Democratic opponents can make them initiate the impeachment of Voronin and call on the people to protest against the antihuman regime and against the ‘genocide’ to which Voronin subjected 80% of the Romanians from Moldova. I think that 2008 will be unstable, unbalanced and of decline for our society. [ - What were the most important political events that had a positive impact on Moldova and what were those that influenced negatively Moldova’s development, in your opinion?] I am convinced that Romania’s accession to the European Union had a beneficial effect for the Moldovan citizens that have also Romanian nationality and became EU citizens. In fact, our people want and move towards the EU, while the agents of the Communist regime look towards the Kremlin and Tiraspol. It is wonderful that Voronin said openly that he is not the President of the Romanians from Moldova. The problem was that none of the Romanians ever considered him as their President. The results of the local elections are good if taking into account the fact that many experienced people turned to the West. This encourages the people who are sick and tired of the Communist regime to believe that it would be overthrown in the elections of 2009. I think that the local election results modified our image for the Western people, who do not understand our love for the past and for Communist Pharisees and unwillingly cooperate with a Communist government. We are glad that certain mysteries in the Moldovan policy, including the disappearance of Vlad Cubreacov, have been clarified. We will now see if the legal system is working because this case appears and disappears again in the same way as Cubreacov. I would mention among the negative political events the cancellation of the live broadcast of the Parliament’s meetings, the anti-Romania and anti-European policy of the presidential office and of the Moldovan Foreign Ministry, the anti-Romania laws, first of all the law that bans the persons with dual nationality from holding public posts, the adoption of a law on parties convenient for PCRM and PPCD, the non-fulfilment of the EU-Moldova Individual Action Plan as we forecasted in 2005, the ignoring of the NATO-Moldova Individual Partnership Action Plan. I regret that we have MPs that consider themselves Democrats, but do not want to sign the initiative to amend article 11 and 13 of the Constitution that concern the Romanian language and Moldova’s military neutrality. I also mean the PPCD MPs that stress the necessity of naming Romanian as state language in the paper Flux, of joining NATO and withdrawing from the CIS, but did not support the initiative of the MPs Valeriu Cosarciuc and Vitalia Pavlicenco, who suggested that Moldova should leave the Commonwealth of Independent States. It is hard to understand this political duplicity. If the PPCD MPs sign today the initiative to modify article 13 of the Constitution, we could file it to the Constitutional Court, which is to examine it in six months. Afterwards, the initiative will reach the Parliament. [ - National and international experts says that Moldova lags behind in the areas of justice and mass media. What was done in these areas in 2007 and what is yet to be done?] I often spoke in the Parliament about the injustice in Moldova. I informed about this the Millennium Challenge Corporation. I defended a number of people, among whom the businesswoman Eugenia Duca, who was legally harassed by the entire composition of the Supreme Court which, by its decisions, proves the instability of the legal reports and of the definitive decisions of our court. There are honest judges, but the number of cases lost at the ECHR and the refusal of the governmental agent to hold accountable the ones to blame for Moldova’s convictions in Strasbourg show that our legislation on the financing of justice is intentionally not observed in order to have the judges at the beck and call of the power. If we had fair trials, the imprisoned persons would be entirely different people. I do not have much to say about mass media. I would probably have a question – who knows what will be the ratings of the politicians if they appear on the screen and in the studios of the public television on equal terms? No one can say. That’s why we do not have something like this in Moldova. The objective and pluralistic informing of the people is not state policy in our country. If everyone had equal access to public press, the Communists would not be elected. Therefore, they hinder the appearance of adversaries that will oppose the present antinational regime. Despite a television controlled by the Communists, the Democratic coalitions managed to win the local elections in 21 districts. Can you image what the election results could be if we had freedom of expression and access to public information? For this reason, I cannot answer the question what was done in this area and what is yet to be done. The area of mass media must be transformed according to the law and the constitutional freedom of the people, of the state of law. But this will happen only after anti-Communists come to power in 2009. I often wonder – “Are our Democrats really democratic?” “Won’t they disappoint us even more than the present ones?” [ - What are your party’s priorities for 2008 and, possibly, for 2009?] PNL has worked for a short time and has now two major objectives. The first objective is to extend and consolidate our branches in order to participate in the process of unifying the Liberal and Democratic parties – which is inevitable in Moldova – bringing our own contribution. During 15 years after the proclamation of Independence, the PNL members constantly promoted the democratic principles, defended the national values, participated actively in the political processes, including the process of doctrinarian unification, of creating electoral blocks in order to get rid of totalitarianism and to follow a normal course again, according to the example of the Baltic States and of some of the former Communist states from Central and Eastern Europe. The PNL’s efforts will be aimed at not allowing the Communists, directly or indirectly, to come to power in 2009. All the people expect the democracy to win in Moldova, which should follow the path to European integration – the process that was initiated in 1991 and resumed in 1998, but dramatically interrupted in 2001 when the Communist came to power in Chisinau. The Social-Democrats are more active nowadays and want unification. The Liberals still witness centripetal tendencies. We create new parties and are ready to join the Social-Democrats so as to set up a political centre. The things will probably become clearer after PPCD and PCRM raise the electoral ceiling according to the Russian model and cancel the electoral blocks. In this case, many political organizations will think of an electoral formula and it is rather probable that they will make up a single list or will resort to a larger and comprehensive union of the Liberals in which we will participate. In the end, I express my confidence that God will help us contribute to carrying out a crucial action for our destiny and future – to remove from power the Communists in elections and bring a Democratic coalition instead in 2009. 208 will be a year of dignity. The Communists will make use of all the methods possible to preserve the power. The latest statements made by the Communist Vladimir Voronin made many people think that he has serious health problems and needs a psychiatric examination or that he encourages us to revolt against the Communist dictatorship. PNL proposed three times to start the impeachment of the Communist head of state and we are glad that this proposal is backed by other parties. 2008 will be a test of resistance for the Opposition. We must always be ready to take this exam.