Moldovan society must form itself as a civic nation so as to achieve the European integration objective. Though this stage is necessary, Moldova must avoid the risk of an excess of nationalism as this is against the European values to which it aspires. Such opinions were stated in the public debate entitled “Political culture in the context of polarization of political options in Moldova. Pro-European option: change as a chance and remedies against fear of change”, staged by IPN Agency in partnership with Radio Moldova
Head of the EU Delegation to Moldova Pirkka Tapiola noted that Moldova has the chance and must become a political nation so that all the citizens, regardless of ethnicity, feel that they belong to this state, no matter what problems were faced in the past. “I do understand and everybody knows what happened in terms of nationality policies in the Soviet Union. However, the societies we are working with are the results of a certain historical situation and that historical situation will not go anywhere. That is a very big reality. Here I think the European concept can contribute quite a lot because the EU’s own motto is “unity in diversity”. The European Union was a process against nationalism, against a closed version of national ideas, to get more into multi-ethnicity, multi-nationalism, and building a common home,” stated the diplomat.
He underlined that the concept of a political nation with all the historical progress these countries have is a very important one, which really needs to be developed. “Partly, the mixing of the European economic modernization with unfinished identity-related issues from the past partly brings that polarization. And here I think we should build, not divide and really work against that polarization because of the European idea of tolerance, of unity, of accepting diversity, of accepting maybe different interpretations of history, but building a common future based on modernization, democracy, acceptance and economic growth. That is what we need to focus on,” stated Pirkka Tapiola.
On the other hand, Anatol Taranu, director of the Institute for Political Analysis and Consultancy “Politicon”, said that Moldova needs yet a form of nationalism as an idea that would captivate and enrapture the people, channeling thus the people’s energies into achieving a national goal. “The European countries that today represent the EU and fight harshly nationalism, went out of nationalism as national countries themselves. Without nationalism, at the initial stage of forming the national state, it is impossible to build this state,” said the analyst.
The October 16 debate is the 34th of the series of debates “Development of political culture in public debates”. IPN Agency stages these debates the third consecutive year with the support of the Hanns Seidel Foundation and in cooperation with Radio Moldova.
