Press Release
on the organization of the debate ”100 days of rule in government’s, opposition‘s and society’s view”. Public debates series held by the news agency IPN in its conference room with the support of the German Foundation “Hanns Seidel”
Held on 01 November 2021, Debate No.211 brought together: Adrian Băluțel, MP of the Party of Action and Solidarity, Nicolae Pascaru, ex-MP of the Party of Socialists and Igor Boțan, IPN project’s standing expert.
Members of the ruling party consider that the government during 100 days managed to do what the previous government failed to. It started a crackdown on institutions so that these work for the people, implemented a number of social support measures for the citizens and managed to cope with the COVID-19 crisis. For their part, representatives of the opposition consider the government primarily failed. It tries to concentrate the power in all the areas, including in the justice sector, and this is actually the path to dictatorship in the Republic of Moldova, said experts invited to a public debate titled “Indulgence offered to the government expires. 100 days of rule in government’s, opposition‘s and society’s view” that was hosted by IPN.
According to the standing expert of IPN’s project Igor Boțan, the grace period of 100 days for any government refers to a tradition that is 100-200 years old. The formula entered big politics after two famous cases. The first case happened in 1815, when Napoleon left the Elba Island and came to France despite all the agreements. “He was acclaimed, welcomed and during 100 days managed to restore his power and army and to lose them. Therefore, great things can be done during 100 days, from extraordinary victories and successes to full loss of power. Another political event related to the 100-day period refers to the government of U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, when this, after winning the presidential elections in 1932 against his challenger who was unable to take the country out of the crisis that started on October 24, 1929, during 100 days worked miracles and overcame the crisis,” stated the expert.
Igor Boțan said everyone agrees not to criticize the new Government or the new President during the first 100 days and to allow the Government to shape its plan for solving the undertaken problems. But the Government‘s action program is adopted by Parliament. It is an official document that is later implemented through the Government’s action plan. It is important for Parliament, based on the Government’s program it adopted, to work out a legislative plan, offering the Government a mandate. The current Government’s legislative plan hasn’t been yet presented and this is a problem. Also, Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița assured that they work on the Government‘s action plan, but this is not yet available on the Government‘s website. “We want to be sure that the program adopted by Parliament is divided into segments so that we see the immediate priorities.”
Adrian Băluțel, MP of the Party of Action and Solidarity, said the government during the election campaign and while in the opposition, said that the corrupt governments eroded the capacity of this state to work in the interests of the citizens. The major goal of the team from Parliament, from the Government is to increase the institutions’ capacity to work in the interests of the people so that these deliver immediate benefits to the citizens. The government proved this during the first 100 days, ensuring the biggest pension rise in the modern history of the Republic of Moldova, managing to reduce the tariffs for a number of public services, to restore the openness of the international community that offered financial support. The economic recovery is another important element of the program. The SMEs will be supported. During the first 100 days, there was adopted an exhaustive digitalization and de-bureaucratization package that will enable the entrepreneurs to work easier and to interact with the state easier. The government said it clearly that it wants to clean the institutions. It stopped one of the biggest illegal acquisitions at the Public Property Agency.
The citizens can also see how much the incomes of the Customs Service grew during the first 100 days and see what huge amount of money went to unknown directions. PAS took over amid a pandemic crisis that was aggravated by a lot of political and administrative factors. “The previous government put up great opposition to the implementation of the social protection measures and didn’t take measures to prevent the spread of the infection and, what’s more important, to ensure support and legitimacy to the vaccination campaign. Now the new government must cope and persuade the people to get vaccinated,” said Adrian Băluțel, noting that among the Government’s priorities are to restore the capacities of institutions to work in the interests of the people, to provide benefits and social support to the citizens and to manage the crises that persist in Moldova owing to the inherited problems.
Nicolae Pascaru, ex-MP of the Party of Socialists, said that the government tries to provide arguments for its failures, but the mission of democracy is to make sure that there are more opinions in society and that there is a spirit of the people who aim to present things as they are, not to idealize them, as the government intends. Under the slogan of the fight against corruption, unacceptable things are done as persons who represent a political party are named to state posts and the power in the state is actually concentrated, including by annulling public contests. “The attacks on the Audiovisual Council, on Teleradio-Moldova, which is financed with public money, are evident,” he said, noting transparency in the transfer of 1.7 billion lei to an intermediary company of Energocom wasn’t ensured and the fate of this money is not known, this showing that the government is not transparent.
Nicolae Pascaru stated he does not see proper cooperation between the government and the opposition. “Even under the rule of Vladimir Voronin, the CEC belonged to the opposition. Now this institution includes members of a party and in the future this will lead to problems that society notices now already,” said the former MP. He noted he does not see the successes of the Government as long as Germany pays for gas US$220, Hungary – US$250, while Moldova will pay US$500 and the final price is not yet known. According to him, the effects of the fight against corruption will be the opposite to the expectations as long as the salaries are small, while the prices of fuels and bare essentials are high. ”The government should start to work in the interests of the citizens.”
The public debate “Indulgence offered to the government expires. 100 days of rule in government’s, opposition‘s and society’s view” was the 211st installment of the series of debates held as part of the project “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates’ that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation..
The Agency published 4 news stories on the debate (see the English version of www.ipn.md): on 01.11.21, „100 days of rule in government’s, opposition‘s and society’s view. IPN debate”- https://www.ipn.md/en/100-days-of-rule-in-governments-oppositions-and-8004_1085439.html; „Igor Boțan: PAS government’s accomplishments during first 100 days inspire optimism” - https://www.ipn.md/en/igor-botan-pas-governments-accomplishments-during-first-100-days-8004_1085441.html; „Nicolae Pascaru: We expect a not so good situation in spring” - https://www.ipn.md/en/nicolae-pascaru-we-expect-a-not-so-good-situation-in-8004_1085443.html; “Adrian Băluțel: Government inherited baggage of problems that it has to solve now”- https://www.ipn.md/en/adrian-balutel-government-inherited-baggage-of-problems-that-it-has-8004_1085437.html.
Valeriu Vasilica, director of IPN