Additionally weakened by the refusal to review the Constitution, the parliamentary opposition does not have real chances to remain in big politics after the elections of February 2019. Unlike this, the extraparliamentary opposition can use the government’s despair and the weakness of the LDPM and LP to strengthen itself, political pundit Dionis Cenușa stated in a feature article for IPN Agency.
How to treat the idea of reviewing the Constitution – positively, negatively or neutrality – will be the main dilemma for the PAS and PPPDA during the next few months, noted the politologist.
According to him, the positive version would mean that both of the parties approve the referendum, but explicitly detach themselves from having any future cooperation with Vladimir Plahotniuc’s Democratic. Neither PAS nor the PPPDA could condition the amendment of the Constitution by the introduction of the Romanian language. Or, these parties are now not interested in assuming the ‘unionist agenda’ (pro-reunification with Romania) for which the LDPM and LP struggle. But Maia Sandu and Andrei Năstase can impose other conditions that would offer them time and maneuvering space, if the Constitutional Court allows combining the parliamentary elections and the constitutional referendum.
In the case of a negative approach, together with the LDPM, the two extraparliamentary parties refuse to offer any support for the eventual referendum. For this scenario, the two parties should precisely determine if a negativist rhetoric or call to boycott will not hit their own voters, favoring more the Democrats together with the Socialists.
The expert noted the opposition forces can also adopt a neutral approach, but this will mean that the DPM could manipulate the socio-political context without encountering any resistance on the part of the real opposition. Evidently, the opposition has multiple files that it can use to criticize the government’s policy, but this will not replace its absence from public discussions on the necessity of including or not the European course in the Constitution.
Consequently, the Democrats and the Socialists will be practically the only forces engaged in geopolitical debates that contain high efficiency in overall efforts to influence the electoral behavior of Moldovans, concluded Dionis Cenușa.
