The campaign prior to the snap parliamentary elections is inexplicably anemic. The main contenders do not really have what to say to the voters. Therefore, the propagandists revive old myths and fibs so as to present them to the voters as new products. In this connection, it is useful to expose expired propagandistic products so as to discourage the sponsors from at least refraining from paying for scarp. We can exemplify by mentioning only several fibs served recently to the voters, about the: closure of schools; danger of a regional war; hampering of the citizens’ access to the Russian vaccine Sputnik V, etc.
Fib about closure of schools
This fib is aimed at distracting attention from the strategic decision of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM), which was implemented by one of the current leaders of the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova (PSRM) – Zinaida Grechanyi. The latter is the author of the National Development Strategy (NDS) , which is a strategic document that set down the fundamental country development objectives, among which are:
- “the optimization of the network of schools, which remains an evident solution for optimizing the use of resources... The mapping of pre-university education institutions was completed and, based on this, the strategy for optimizing the network of school will be worked out”. These well-founded arguments of Zinaida Grechanyi were presented in person to Parliament, as it follows – “The reduction in the number of children of school age given that in many settlements the projected school capacity already exceeds the number of students for several times and this leads to unjustified costs”;
- “optimization and rationalization of the network of hospitals”. In this case, Zinaida Grechanyi also presented concrete arguments: ‘”The health sector continues to face the problem of overcapacity... during the past ten years, the number of hospital beds decreased almost twice (56.6 beds per 10,000 people), reaching this way the average of the European Union member states”.
Currently, the leaders of the Electoral Bloc of the Communists and the Socialists (EBCS), who worked out and launched the implementation of the strategy for optimizing schools and hospitals, with unspeakable cynicism, cry crocodile tears now, saying their intention is not to allow the closure of any school, with even one student and one teacher. In this connection, it should be noted that in the Russian Federation, which has been ruled during over 20 years by the strategic partners of the PSRM – President Putin and “United Russia”, there were closed: ~30% of the kindergartens; ~39% of the schools; over 50% of the hospitals! A question arises here, who did the leaders of the EBCS draw their inspiration from? Not from the strategic partner to whom they want to yield the Republic of Moldova within the Eurasian Economic Union?
Fib about danger of a regional war
One of the EBCS leaders Igor Dodon scares the voters in a gratuitous way, inflating soap bubbles: “The victory of the parties of the right can lead to the destabilization of the situation, as in Ukraine. I don’t think someone wants to allow the country to be under foreign control, as it happened to the presidential institution. I’m sure that the absolute majority does not want this. If this happens, the destabilization on the Nistru and not only will be inevitable, while the victories of the forces of the right mean war and destabilization. The people could later say that they hadn’t been warned”.
In fact, the leader of the PSRM himself incites a regional war. In the program “White and Black” of March 19, 2014, he said it unwaveringly, in connection with the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation: “In the newly created conjuncture, I think we should also recover the lost historical territories […] I think it’s very clear what I meant. These are our territories” (UNIMEDIA blocked access to the statements of the PSRM leader, which were accessible several months ago). The war in Donbas that still continues followed. Meanwhile, the leaders of the PSRM joined the Russian Imperial Movement whose branch in Chisinau is led by the main propagandist of the party. The leaders of the Russian Imperial Movement do not hesitate to openly claim the annexation of Transnistria by Russia, while the leader of the PSRM, in this connection, disseminates fibs about the danger of the victory of the parties of the right.
Does the leader of the PSRM imagine somehow that the lost historical territories can be recovered without causing a war similar to that in Donbas? Do the supporters of the EBCS really want to take part in the adventures of their irresponsible leaders? Probably not. But they should remember that the ‘warlike’ statements of their leader were made for the sake of a picture before the parliamentary elections of November 30, 2014, alongside President Vladimir Putin. That picture helped Igor Dodon to attract to the PSRM the voters who were earlier faithful to the PCRM. Consequently, in the current election campaign, the PCRM forms part of the EBCS as a poor relative robbed by those who were brought to politics by this party and who later betrayed it. The price paid for that picture was very high – the promise to federalize the Republic of Moldova so as to disperse the decision adoption center into three directions and to make the Republic of Moldova fully dependent on the strategic partnership. In this regard, it is not accidental that ~80% of the visits that Igor Dodon paid abroad while holding office of President were made to Russia. It’s true that he didn’t manage to solve any of the problems from the bilateral Moldovan-Russian relations.
Fib about politicization of population vaccination process
The leader of the PSRM promises repeatedly to bring in June, before the snap elections, 1 million doses of Sputnik V vaccine doses. These promises are accompanied by fibs saying that someone, out of ill will, creates impediments to the bringing of the Sputnik V vaccine to the Republic of Moldova: “When entry into a country is not allowed only because the vaccine is Russian, this is called geopolitics and has nothing to do with the people’s health!” Recently, the Ministry of Health proved that there is no conjuration against the Russian vaccine, but that episode helps us to reveal how precarious the activity of the PSRM’s propagandists is.
Several years ago, the propagandists of the PSRM didn’t stop eulogizing the appearance of a new pole of the multipolar world – BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). It now turns out that not the Republic of Moldova, as the leader of the PSRM insinuates, but a member of the BRICS fissures, amid the pandemic crisis, the strategic partnership of the new element of the multipolar world. This way, recently Brazil refused to vaccinate the citizens with Sputnik V owing to the negligence of the producer. So, the geopolitical pathos of the propagandists faded way in the mist of the producer’s negligence. Neither more nor less!
Conclusions
The distorting of the reality and the lies of politicians of any ideological and geopolitical orientation should be combated by all ways possible. The voters needs correct information and opinions subject to public debates. The control of the electronic media by political clans makes the correct informing of the voters impossible, the electors being subject to manipulation through propagandistic shooting.
The PSRM dares to disseminate propagandistic fibs because it controls four TV channels, including foreign ones, which broadcast all over the country. This is one of the most efficient ways of exerting external influence on the Republic of Moldova. In such circumstances, the leaders of the PSRM do not need a pluralism of ideas and contradictory debates on the affiliated channels that loyally broadcast only the viewpoints that are convenient for the PSRM. The given media resource advantages it enormously, as other parties, except for the oligarchic ones, do not have such resources. This state of affairs should be changed as swiftly as possible or the Republic of Moldova could remain hostage to the propagandistic fibs for a long period of time.