Sociologist Raluca Raducanu, expert in European policies from Bucharest, said the regime in the Republic of Moldova abusively and illegally invalidated the results of the Chisinau mayoral elections, in the absence of objections on the part of electoral observers, and the European Union, based on the agreements signed with the Republic of Moldova, took notice of this new and most serious blow to democracy and suspended the financing for an indefinite period. In an interview for Radio Free Europe, quoted by IPN, the expert said the government propaganda derives from the Democratic Party’s need to remain credible before the pragmatic pro-European voters as it allocated important resources for securing the loyalty of these during the past few years.
“If the PDM and the Government had assumed the invalidation of elections, which is the establishment of dictatorship, they would have lost the electorate without having time to conquer another niche. Consequently, they chose to externalize the responsibility – it is the blame of the judiciary system, of the legislative shortcomings, of the extraparliamentary opposition, of the European Union and anyone else and less of the PDM and its leader Vladimir Plahotniuc. It seems important to me to specify that the stake of this type of propaganda is now to create imaginary enemies of the people, scapegoats for shifting public attention from the abusive invalidation of elections to other themes that are convenient for the Democratic Party and its leader,” stated Raluca Raducanu.
“What happened in the Republic of Moldova means abolition of democracy by the invalidation of elections. It is very hard to find a formula to restore the relationship between the Moldovan authorities and Brussels without respecting the citizens’ wish because Brussels, as Federica Mogherini specified, is not only a neighbor, but is also a friend and a partner of the citizens of Moldova.”
The expert noted the way in which the Democratic Party has been built during the past few years was based on the invoking of pro-European narratives and on the assumption of a pro-European direction. If it renounces this direction, the PDM will practically remain without voters as it would have to move further to the left, where the Party of Socialists is well established. The only variant for the PDM now is to keep the European course at least at declarative level.
“Instead, beyond the electoral strategy, the PDM and the whole configuration of the power in Chisinau will further bear a very big political responsibly, namely that of blowing up the institutional relationship between Brussels and Chisinau, which has been built during over nine years and it would be very hard to restore this if we look at the possible configuration of the European Parliament after the European parliamentary elections of 2019. Surely, the PDM after the parliamentary elections in Moldova, could decide to legalize the separation from the European Union that started by the abusive invalidation of the local elections in Chisinau,” stated Raluca Raducanu.
She noted that the Republic of Moldova remains attached to the European values by its people who seek rights and by the leader of the Party “Action and Solidarity” Maia Sandu and the extraparliamentary opposition that committed themselves to struggle for the people’s rights. The ruling party PDM and the current governmental formula are no longer anchored in the EU. Now the PDM, from political viewpoint, is in a much weaker positon than two years ago as by the decision to invalidate the elections, it destabilized its construction erected until now.
