Pasat looks eastward

Valeriu Pasat, the leader of the Humanist Party, thinks that the solution to the political and economic crisis to Moldova is the reorientation of Moldova's foreign policy from European integration eastward. Pasat, a former chief of the intelligence service and defense minister, told a news conference on Thursday that Moldova's reorientation eastward should take place in two stages. The first concerns the economy. “We plead for our country's membership in the customs union between Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. The second stage will be political integration. Together with allies from other CIS countries, we will promote the idea of creating a political union between our countries, following the example of the EU”, said Pasat. The Humanist Party leader says his plan will also contribute to the settlement of the Transnistrian settlement, for the facilitation of which he proposes declaring Russian a second official language in Moldova. He argued that his plan will also help to keep Moldova within its centuries-old Christian Orthodox environment. Pasat announced that his party intends to run in the upcoming parliamentary race. “We will not join any bloc in the race, but in Parliament we will make coalition with those who will support our two projects – membership in the Customs Union and Orthodoxy classes in schools”, said Pasat, adding that he will accept a coalition with the Communist Party in the future parliament only if its current leader Vladimir Voronin steps down. In the end, Pasat said that the constitutional referendum on September 5 failed because of the “wrong unionist” aspirations of the Alliance for European Integration.