The excessive aversion of the Moldovan politicians influenced the decision-making process and was one of the causes of the political crisis experienced by the country, the leader of the Democratic Party Marian Lupu said in the public debate “Lessons learned and lessons to be learned. Overcoming and prevention of political crises: role of the political class and society - 2” that was staged by IPN News Agency.
Marian Lupu said the politicians must consider the post held not a launch pad and should not think that they cannot be criticized if they are in power. He added that if leaving aside a series of reasons and focusing on the main reason, he can say that the recent political crisis was determined by the level of general and political culture of the Moldovan politicians. “We can speak about institutions and their functionality, but the human factor was important. There is nothing strange in political competition, but the corporate interests often prevailed,” stated Marian Lupu.
He stressed that Moldova’s European integration course implies a change of approaches as the political elite must increase its level of political culture. The politicians must become Europeans, while the parties must become promoters of European principles and standards.
Expert in electoral strategies Olga Nicolenco is convinced that even if the crisis was called political and even if the politicians were the main players, it affected all the spheres of life. A crisis means regression in reforms and their promotion. “The crisis scared foreign investors away and reduced the political activism of society and the pace of creating veritable European traditions,” she stated.
Olga Nicolenco added that this crisis affected her personally, but she is satisfied how it was solved. “I admit that the crisis was overcome due to the politicians. They realized the dangers and the damage that could have been caused to the country. The mass media also played a part as they showed what was done and what wasn’t done. The civil society representatives made their contribution too,” said the expert.
IMAS general manager Doru Petruti believes that everyone realized what a political crisis is. “We learned that it is very hard to implement sociological measures during a political crisis. We saw how fast opinions change and how sensitive society is. We saw how the wish to have early elections increased during several months as the people saw no other way out. There were preconditions for the configuration in Parliament to change significantly. The images of the political players were affected, with small exceptions, while parties’ scores modified considerably,” said the expert.
Igor Botan, executive director of the Association for Participatory Democracy ADEPT, considers that such political crisis as the last one enable to test the durability of the state institutions and the quality of civil society and the mass media, and society should not be afraid of such processes.
“The leaders reached the conclusion that they should step aside and allow their colleagues to take their place. These new persons are competent and you are proud when you hear them speaking. The crisis was solved in an exemplary way, owing to the foreign factor and the pressure exerted by the opposition. I think that the fear for the opposition’s revenge was one of the decisive factors that led to the solving of the crisis,” stated Igor Botan.
The 20th public debate “Lessons learned and lessons to be learned. Overcoming and prevention of political crises: role of the political class and society - 2” of the series “Development of political culture by public debates” was organized with support from the German foundation “Hanns Siedel”.