The parties that were in the opposition on April 7, 2009 didn’t meet the expectations of the people who protested in the Great National Assembly Square un Chisinau. These could take the protests under control, but didn’t do it, director of the Institute for Public Policy (IPP) Arcadie Barbarosie stated for IPN. According to him, the then government reacted absolutely inappropriately to the protests and could not control them, IPN reports.
Arcadie Barbarosie noted that the police didn’t manage the demonstrations in a way that would correspond to the notion of ‘rule of law’ and behaved in a dishonoring way by using torture in police stations. “What followed was yet worse – the parties that won the elections in 2009 and 2010 didn’t fulfill their electoral promises and deeply disappointed the voters. These also lamentably failed to do reforms,” said the IPP director.
Arcadie Barbarosie also said that promising to remove the Communist regime, the governments that ruled in 2009, 2010 and 2014 did nothing but take over control of the oligarchic system instituted by the Communists. “They also redirect the financial flows to their accounts or to their pockets as the money didn’t come through accounts, but in bags, sacks or envelopes,” he stated.
The expert considers that this is why the government was unable to clearly identify those to blame, while those who were brought to justice and convicted disappeared. “That’s why we do not know exactly what role the government played and why it didn’t deliver its promises, who is to blame, who ordered the use of violence and how things deteriorated to murder in the street,” he said.
According to Arcadie Barbarosie, there is a low probability that such events will repeat in Moldova because both the authorities and the citizens drew conclusions. “At least the protest movements that took place in 2015 and 2016 showed that the protesters are much better organized and understand that the use of force is inadmissible,” he stated.
The expert noted that among the consequences of the April 7, 2009 events are the people’s disappointment and the going of many Moldovans abroad because they do not see a prosperous future in Moldova.
