The Declaration of Independence offers grounds for Moldova’s development – interview with the leader of the party and parliamentary group Moldova Noastra Alliance, Serafim Urecheanu

[-Is the 16th Anniversary of independence somehow distinct from other anniversaries?] Each anniversary is distinct in its way; as for this year, we greet it at least within the Moldova Noastra (Our Moldova) Alliance, with the change of the local power following the recent general local elections being its keynote. By this year’s political event, the democrat forces have got closer to taking over the power in the state, locally for now, and this fact will further change a lot our value system, as well, including here the way the future politicians and especially the society will value the “Independence Day”. [-How do you think, what are Moldova’s biggest achievements and failures during these 16 years of its independence?] The first big achievement is namely the voting of the Declaration of Independence, one of the major events that generated even the formation of the state of the Republic of Moldova. The Declaration of Independence itself is a well-balanced, very complex and very thorough text, with some people keeping away from it, but we will refer to it on numerous occasions in order to find the main reference points in developing our state. Unfortunately, we don’t have too many achievements as regards the governance in the country, because especially in the last few years, it hasn’t been actually governed, taking into account the communist ruling. But the country has achieved a lot at international level, including its recognition worldwide, international aid in settling its inner problems of all kinds, starting from the territorial integration issues to economic, social ones and those of development, modernisation of the administrative and governmental mechanism. The war on the banks of the Nistru will remain in the history a huge pain directly related to the fight for independence, for territorial integrity. [- Why do you think Moldova is qualified as the poorest state in Europe, with a recent survey by the U.S. magazine “Foreign Policy” showing Moldova on its Independence Anniversary’s eve as the least stable country in Europe? When and how it will be able to get rid of these tags?] It is qualified as such by monitoring agencies, including the international ones and they operate according to some calculation formulas and statistical indicators offered namely by the national statistics. The lowest GDP per inhabitant mirrors the country’s position on the continent. There are of course some objective reasons which determined this situation, as we all know very well that Moldova depends a lot on the foreign energy resources. Unfortunately, Moldova has only a few natural resources that could be sold as raw material or that could boost the industrial development. But it has other riches instead: people, first of all, lands, culture, including the work culture and these will probably help us in our economic, social and cultural achievements. When referring to poverty, to the social-economic development in general, we should remember that in the first years of independence Moldova’s accomplishments were comparable with those of the Baltic countries, for instance, or even with Poland’s achievements in some fields. Anyway, from the point of view of the economic, political reforms, of the development dynamics and of the results of these reforms, Moldova used to have a better outlook than it has today. Unfortunately, many of the leaders of the country since then have worsened this dynamics of development, and if today Moldova is the poorest country in Europe, it is due to a large extent to the present communist government. Before they came to power in 2001, the poorest country was considered Albania. Now it’s Moldova, which means that the country is not developing, is stagnating, the efficiency of the governance is very low, as well as the productivity, the economic profitability in general. The industry has known a decline for a few years now, which is very bad for the economy; the production, in general, has known a decline, too, with the agriculture to follow. But, on the other hand, we have no policies to offset these negative tendencies, and their lack, as well as the lack of a Government project on the country’s economic rehabilitation determines practically the migration of the active manpower looking to earn their bread. Thus, because of that, Moldova is losing today one of the few resources it has, the manpower. I think it is going to be very hard to rectify this situation, even after the upcoming change of governing happens, which is vital for our country. [- Do you think that the European integration as a strategic goal of independent Moldova is irreversible?] I think so and that doesn’t depend so much on Moldova’s domestic political will or its present government’s will, because it complied with a historical tendency, it had to accept and even speculate on a natural orientation for Moldova, which is an European country. Futhermore: as long as it stays out or behind the European processes of modernisation, of integration into the European economy, of liberalisation of goods and trade, as long as it stays out of the European interests field, even out of the European Union borders, the achievements by Moldova as a state are very small and its outlook as a state is very misty. Of course, we need a very well-balanced foreign policy; we need to strengthen our relations in all favourable for Moldova directions, the traditional relations, but, for all that, the only way to secure the country’s integration into an international system of values, economic and social solutions, to secure a place in the future, is its integration into the European Union. Moldova Noastra tested the communist governmet’s sincerity and suggested that Moldova works out and submits an official accession agreement, because we keep talking without making any definite, open approaches to officials. We know of course that we are not ready as a country, we haven’t got all the necessary parameters to be taken seriously as an aspirant to EU membership, but we consider the official approach as being very necessary. Unfortunately, the communist majority in the Parliament has refused five times to include into the agenda the question on the official EU accession agreement. This is the only solution, the only prospect and it will be implemented unfortunately later than it is required. [- Do you think that, a year after changing the name of the national holiday from “Independence Day” into “Republic’s Day”, the change is justified?] I don’t think it’s good to play with values, with history, as the present leadership of the country does. 16 years ago, I was also a member of the first Parliament who voted the Declaration of Moldova’s Independence. That is why this day is dedicated to the voting of the Declaration of Independence, it has become a tradition, and that is why I think this attempt represents an attempt to substitute and violate the values, done by the communist, trying maybe to run away from the principles enclosed in the Declaration. Not too many people accepted today the communist party’s decision to change the name from “Independence Day” into “Republic’s Day”. People are calling it as it was created and celebrated by them in the first years of independence. It will surely stay like that forever, and this year people will experience the comeback to normality as two thirds of the local authorities in the territory are not communist. In those places this holiday will be celebrated as in the past like the Independence holiday, as it actually is in quite many countries. It is well known how important the holiday of the Independence Day of the United States is. [-To what extent the Moldovan people deserved their leadership during Moldova’s independence? Respectively: being previously or now in power, or aspiring to power, would you wish for a different people?] Politicians and political scientists often use the expression “every people deserves the government it gets”. It is somehow justified, because people are voting their leaders and they need to assume responsibility for their vote. It’s true: a certain part of citizens voted the communists 6-7 years ago, but they become less and less. It seems that there is an evolution here too, people change their minds, making conclusions, and changing their attitude as regards the vote, according to the local elections. At the same time, I don’t agree with this assertion, used more often by those who happen to lose the elections and blame the people. The truth is that the people understand the situation quite adequately. The only thing is that we cannot talk about real democracy in Moldova that would help the people see things clearly, get well informed, to be able to analyse things and make a decision in the respective matter, to bring arguments. They are further being manipulated, and there is a big problem as regards media’s freedom in Moldova. It’s enough what the state-owned company “Teleradio-Moldova” is doing, by pretending to be a public company, and serving in fact the regimes in power, one by one. That’s what it did under the previous rulings; only that under the communist ruling, this submission took some inadmissible proportions and shape. But for all that, with the time passing, people learn about independence, including about the independence to make decisions, gather information, learn to analyse and estimate the deeds of the politicians, even if they don’t really trust them. That is why Moldova Noastra has had a very simple politics in the past years: to be honest with the people, to make our views as clear as possible, to further respect our views, even if that costs us a lot. Actually, it’s not easy at all to make opposition in a communist country, but this fact represents a success too, which we saw in the local elections: the devotion towards your message, towards your engagements, honesty, and the open mind help people to better understand, and this fact makes us confident in the political outlook of our party and in the future choice the citizens will make, as the last elections showed this tendency.