Political analyst Igor Boțan noted that all the parliamentary majorities in the Republic of Moldova, in the last 33 years of the country’s independence, were or turned into pro-European majorities. All the heads of state promoted the integration into the European Union, even if some of them later changed their position. After Andrei Sangheli, all the Prime Ministers of the Republic of Moldova supported the pro-European vector. Igor Boțan said that although some of the politicians were oscillating, the pro-European direction has been constantly found in government policies, IPN reports.
“The idea of European integration appeared together with the independence of the Republic of Moldova. This is set out in the Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Moldova, which stipulates, in an absolutely clear manner, that the Republic of Moldova wants to integrate into the European area of values. This was later stated in the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova. Starting from the Declaration of Independence, European integration was further a natural process,” said Igor Boțan.
According to him, although some politicians oscillated, the pro-European direction has been a constant one in government policies. For example, the Party of Communists, after promising to join the Union of Russia and Belarus in 2001, reoriented itself towards the EU due to Russia’s lack of cooperation on issues such as energy security and territorial reintegration. Although the PCRM changed its political course in 2016, switching to “balanced relations with the East and West, Igor Boţan reaffirmed that, despite these changes, all the 11 legislatures and most prime ministers supported European integration in government documents.
“Surely, there is a legitimate question, why certain politicians, after being promoters of European integration, have changed their views. So, it is a purely political phenomenon. And this phenomenon must be understood. It goes to the structure of the electorate of the Republic of Moldova. And opinion polls help us see this structure. We can say, with particular approximation, that 2/3 of the citizens of the Republic of Moldova support the European integration course, while a third rather support the Eurasian integration course and so on. For purely electoral reasons, some politicians, who when they are in power promote European integration, after reaching the opposition take care of the political rating and, in order to represent the Eurasian segment, resort to this transformation, to this change because a segment of 30% of our fellow citizens, who have a different view, need representatives. That is why politicians resort to this oscillation, transformation,” said Igor Boţan.
