The obtaining of the EU candidate status is the most important political achievement of the current government, while the economic and social issues are the major outstanding problems of the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS), said representatives of the extraparliamentary opposition. According to them, the PAS’ activity is mainly inefficient and populist. However, the removal of the country from international isolation and the securing of the development partners’ support in the context of the regional security crisis are the merits of the President and the ruling party, IPN reports.
According to the first vice president of the National Unity Party (PUN) Ana Guțu, the current government can be praised for the results in the foreign policy and the fight against corruption. But the government avoids undertaking major, less popular reforms, such as the territorial-administrative reform, being preoccupied with the results in the next election.
“The obtaining of the EU candidate status is the most important political event. Something started to change in the justice sector. But a party like PAS that holds 63 seats of MP could have done much more and should have started from major things. The simplification of the state from institutional viewpoint is one of the major reforms that should be started. They should have launched a reform covering the central administration and the local one. We urgently need a territorial-administrative reform. We do not need 32 districts. When we had alliance governments, it was impossible to do this reform. Now PAS should undertake the role of a sacrifice party,” Ana Guțu stated in the talk show “Black Box” on TV8 channel.
The vice president of the Party “Dignity and Truth Platform” Kiril Moțpan said PAS does not manage to meet people’s expectations as regard corruption fighting and it didn’t fulfill the promise to clear the state institutions of corrupt elements, with persons representing the former governments continuing to hold key posts.
“PAS banked a lot on the fight against corruption and results were expected of this government from the very first days. In time, the institutions were occupied by people close to Dodon, Plahotniuc and even Voronin. Replacements were needed and persons who would have coped should have been identified. This didn’t happen. When you set off, you should have a strong, devoted team nearby. We didn’t see something like this. In Parliament, only several persons work, while the rest are anonymous,” stated Kiril Moțpan.
The former president of the Liberal Democratic Party Tudor Deliu said PAS attributes merits belonging to other governments to itself, primarily as regards the coming close to the EU.
“This party raised a lot people’s expectations in the election campaign. If we analyze the electoral promises of the President of the Republic of Moldova, we will see that 1/3 of them weren’t within the President’s remit and many of the PAS promises were just bait. It is cynical to say that nothing has been done in the Republic of Moldova for 30 years. The European integration process consists of a number of stages and we worked hard on it while sitting in Parliament. The Association and Free Trade Agreements were signed. The visa regime was liberalized and it wasn’t the regional context, but work,” said Tudor Deliu.
The vice president of the Democratic Party Nicolae Ciubuc noted that given the record inflation rate in Moldova, the government should focus more on the social sector and should help the citizens and the businesses to cope with the crisis.
“We were witnesses to different appointments according to political criteria. Even if they spoke about contests, we ultimately have persons who supported or were affiliated to the current government in many posts. Different commissions were constituted with a rather populist goal. We didn’t see social reforms, if only the subsidies paid in winter. We didn’t see measures to support businesses in the food and other industries where many companies failed due to these crises,” stated Nicolae Ciubuc.
In the snap parliamentary elections of July 11, 2021, the Party of Action and Solidarity gained 63 seats of MP of the 101. The Government led by Natalia Gavrilița was invested on August 6, 2021 with the votes of the PAS MPs.
