Press Release
on the organization of the debate “Elections 2019: Please elect me MP because…”   “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates” Public debates series held by the news agency IPN in its conference room with the support of the German Foundation “Hanns Seidel”

Held on 30 January 2019, Debate 101 brought together:

- Alexandru Slusari, ACUM electoral bloc (no.2 on national constituency ballot), candidate for Constituency no.28 Rascani/Chisinau;
- Elena Bodnarenco, Communist Party (no.3 on national constituency ballot), candidate for Constituency no.7 Soroca;
- Bogdan Țîrdea, Socialist Party (no.4 on national constituency ballot).

At the same time, we regret the absence of a representative from the Democratic Party (no.1 on the national constituency ballot). A DP official acknowledged receiving our invitation six days prior, but nevertheless the contender chose not to delegate anyone to take part. This is regretful, because electoral debates have the purpose of not only letting contenders demonstrate their advantages over others, but also of showing their capacity to communicate and interact with potential partners in the future parliament, and more importantly with the general public as well.

This was the first debate during the electoral campaign preceding the February 24 legislative elections, with the first four contenders invited to participate. The following three debates will be held based on the same principle of order of registration with the Central Election Commission.

The debate rules are the same for every participant, simple and clear enough: every meeting will focus on several key issues, and every speaker will be given equal amounts of time to express how he or she stands on those issues, to ask questions, respond to questions and make comments.  

Alexandru Slusari, a candidate on behalf of the electoral bloc ACUM Platform PAS and DA, said the stake of these elections is mainly to prevent a socioeconomic and demographic catastrophe in Moldova. “I don’t think it’s a big secret that a lot of people now say that if the current mafia clan remains in power, they will take their suitcases and will leave the county. We are close to a catastrophe and this is definite. We must do all what it is possible and impossible to stop the massive exodus and take the country out of poverty and corruption,” stated Alexandru Slusari, who runs in the national constituency and in single-member constituency No. 28 in Chisinau, Râșcani.

According to him, the stake of the upcoming elections is related to the European course of the Republic of Moldova, which is now in danger or was event stopped. “If the bloc ACUM does no take over, we will definitely face the so-called fourth path that leads us to an abyss or to a coalition between the Democratic Party and the PSRM, which are practically similar paths. Why is our team the best? We, in the bloc ACUM, consolidated a very nice team of people who mostly hadn’t been in power. No one took part in schemes of corruption. At the same time, these people work in different areas and are professionals in diplomacy, agriculture and economy, experts in different areas who together can ensure responsible governance for all the people, not for a narrow group of mafiots,” noted Alexandru Slusari.

Elena Bodnarenko, a candidate on behalf of the Party of Communists, said in the upcoming parliamentary elections, not only the social, economic, cultural and ethnic situation will be decided, but also the way in which the country will exist, as a free and independent state or not. Today the situation in the country is catastrophic in all the areas of social life – economic, political, social, educational, demographic, observance of human rights.

To solve these problems and to help the country overcome the current situation,  which is the most difficult one since the declaration of Independence, the politician said the mafia should be removed from the government. The situation can also be overcome if the rule of law is ensured and if the respect for the people is restored.

“All the three tasks can be carried out only by the Party of Communists. The PCRM is the only party that has a positive eight-year government experience. No matter what our opponents say today and will yet say in the election campaign, no government before the Communists and after the Communists can beat statistics. The rise in people’s incomes, the clearing of debts at domestic and foreign levels, improvement of the living conditions in towns and villages. There were many problems and we had special programs for all of them. The Party of Communists is the only party that can carry out all these tasks that are enumerated in its program,” stated Elena Bodnarenko, who runs on behalf of the Communist Party in the national constituency and in single-member constituency No. 7 Soroca.

Bogdan Țîrdea, of the Party of Socialists, said the Republic of Moldova is close to or even is already in an economic, political and social collapse and hundreds of ratings and international researches can be presented here and these use the concept of “state captured by the oligarchs” or “black whole of Europe”. “Practically all the sectors failed and this is mainly due to the Democratic Party and I will provide only several figures to scare you a little. Such things didn’t exist in the history of the Republic of Moldova. First of all, in 2016 we fell in the corruption perception index from the 102nd place to the 132nd place. So, it was the most serious collapse in the world. This is one. Second, in 2015-2016 we were classed as the most corrupt justice in the world by the World Economic Forum. This is a catastrophe! Not mentioning other indicators,” stated Bogdan Țîrdea, who runs in the national constituency on behalf of the Party of Socialists.

The politician said a record number of deaths from diabetes was recorded in 2016 – 416. Also in 2016, there was a record number of deaths from oncological diseases – 6,226 – and over 80,000 people now suffer from cancers. The birth rate in 2017 was the lowest in the country’s history – of 34,060 children.

“Given the aforementioned, I want to say that Moldova is now an oligarchic regime, a classical dictatorship, a captured state. And this was seen already in the last European Parliament Resolution of November 2018. In the article of Jagland (e.n. Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland) clearly says that we are a state captured by the oligarchs. So, we are a state close to bankruptcy. For these reasons, the elections are fundamental, strategic as they enable us to strengthen statehood, to stop this social collapse, to stop this exodus,” stated Bogdan Țîrdea, noting this is the result of the accomplishments of the Democratic Party’s governance.

The politician said only the Party of Socialists can remedy the situation as it is an opposition party that organized about 500 protests, submitted censure motions in Parliament, unveiled the theft of the US$ 1 billion, sought the dismissal of prosecutors. The PSRM is the only alternative to the current government and some of the opposition parties as it has a program that is fully different from the programs of the other contenders. The Socialists plead for neutrality, statehood, Eurasian integration, but against European integration, the union with Romania, optimizations in education and the health system, etc.

A representative of the Democratic Party that tops the list of candidates on the ballot was also invited to the debate, but this didn’t present himself even if an official representative confirmed the invitation was received six days ago.

The electoral contenders are invited to the electoral debates held by IPN Agency in accordance with the order in which they were registered by the Central Election Commission.

Candidates of the Shor Party, the People’s Movement “Antimafie”, the Our Party and the National Liberal Party confirmed their participation in the debate scheduled for January 31, 2pm.

The series of debates “Elections 2019: Please elect me MP because...”, forms part of the series of public debates held by IPN News Agency as part of the project “Developing political culture through public debates” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation of Germany.

The Agency published 3 news stories on the debate (see the English version of www.ipn.md): on 30.01.19, „ACUM, PCRM and PSRM argue why their candidates should be voted. PDM is absent from IPN debate” - http://ipn.md/en/special/96186; on 31.01.19, „Repealing of laws adopted during last ten years is among priorities of aspirants for seat of MP, IPN debate” - http://ipn.md/en/politica/96188; „Election campaign is dirty, IPN debate” - http://ipn.md/en/politica/96189..

IPN promoted the debate before and after the event, in particular the ensuing news stories, using all the available channels, including social networks. Confirmatory materials of deliverables, as well as a media coverage dossier are attached.


Valeriu Vasilica, director of IPN