During the past few years, the Republic of Moldova witnessed continuous regression in all sectors, as regards democracy, corruption and the freedom of the media, stated journalist Alex Cozer. He made reference to a number of rankings that included Moldova, the last being the Index of Economic Freedom compiled by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, IPN reports.
Alex Cozer said Moldova’s ratings concerning the global democracy index, corruption and the freedom of the media over the past few years decreased. As to the grants received by Moldova from foreign partners, in 2014 these represented US$ 288 million, in 2015 – US$ 103 million and in 2018 – US$ 21 million. “In 2018, we also lost the financial assistance promised by the European Union,” stated the journalist.
WacthDog expert Valeriu Pașa said a series of events that happened last year didn’t contribute to improving Moldova’s score as regards freedom and democracy and among these were the invalidation of the Chisinau mayoral election and the postponement of the election campaign for three months. “If we refer strictly to political freedom and right to justice, the Republic of Moldova is in a much worse situation than many states placed lower in the rankings,” he stated, referring to the Freedom House’ rankings.
Journalist Valeriu Saharneanu said the institutions are subdued in Moldova and this is a key problem that should be analyzed. Two pillars of democracy – justice and the mass media – are not free as they should be. “Last year will remain in the history of democracy as that year saw the annulment of elections that are the main indicator of democracy,” he stated.
With a score of 59.1 points out of 100 possible, the Republic of Moldova ranks 97th of 180 countries included in the Index of Economic Freedom produced by the Heritage Foundation of the U.S. and The Wall Street Journal. The index measures the impact of liberty and free markets. Moldova rose by 0.7 percentage points on last year, but remains in the category of countries with mostly unfree economies.
