[Info-Prim Neo article from the series “2011: how it was and how it wasn't”] The Moldovan is the most patient voter in the world, considering the events that have taken place in other countries. The Alliance for European Integration has remained in power thanks to this patience, but Moldovans reached the end of their rope because of the recent situation, said Vladimir Voronin, the third Moldovan president and the leader of the Communist Party, in an interview for Info-Prim Neo. “In 2011, the Alliance was on the verge of collapsing every day. It was a stillborn coalition. They blackmail each other threatening to ally with the Communists if their initiatives aren’t endorsed. Those who voted for the Democrats didn’t imagine they would ally with the Liberals even in their worst nightmare and vice versa. These parties remained afloat because they call themselves anti-Communists. Moreover, they receive financial support from Western partners for their anti-Communism”, declared Vladimir Voronin. [AIE – fancy name, no results] The Communist leader says the government achieved no success under AIE. “This team with a fancy name – the Alliance for European Integration – doesn’t promote anything, doesn’t respect Moldova’ s international and internal commitments. Wages didn’t grow, new jobs didn’t appear, social problems weren’t solved, constructions and agriculture reached the level of 2001”, said Vladimir Voronin. According to the PCRM leader, all the “thieves in law”, who were banished or dealt with previously, returned to the country during the AIE government. “Bureaucracy and smuggling skyrocketed. The actual government takes special care of the bureaucracy, God forbid it is reduced. They’d better dispose of teachers and doctors”, accused the former president. The Communist leader says that after the 2010 parliamentary elections, when AIE was formed, PCRM decided to be constructive opposition. “However, when they started to promote an aggressive policy, especially against our territorial structures, and none of our proposals was accepted for debates in Parliament, we understood they needed no opposition. The Democrats aren’t that democratic if they don’t take into consideration the opposition”, stressed the PCRM leader. “We became a harsh opposition, which we are good at, because they don’t talk to us and use various tricks in parliamentary commissions and during Parliament’s meetings. Their main goals is to remain in power”, said Vladimir Voronin. [PCRM was able to elect the President in 2005 because it offered posts to the opposition] “We knew how to cooperate with the opposition. In 2001, we dealt with protests. We negotiated and overcame the crisis. In 2005, we offered the opposition top posts at the Central Electoral Committee, the Court of Accounts, the Coordinating Council of the Audiovisual, and thus we reached an agreement, elected the president and overcame the political crisis”, recalled Voronin. The PCRM leader thinks that current politics are full of paradoxes. “For example, at the presidential elections everybody decided to show their ballot papers, including Marian (Lupu), as if anyone had doubts about his vote. Now Mihai Godea challenges the validity of elections in the Constitutional Court”, said the Communist. [Early elections are a solution] Vladimir Voronin is pessimistic about the year to come. “We’ll start the year in a political and social-economic crisis. If they continue their manipulation and don’t listen to our demands (breaking up the AIE, a new Government, respecting the Law about local public authority), there is no other solution than early elections. People reached the end of the rope and something much worse could burst out in society without politicians’ intervention”, he said. The former president thinks the form of government, either a coalition or one party, matters less than the act of governance itself. It’s harmful to change from presidential republic to a parliamentary one and vice versa. What matters are the people governing the country, regardless of the form. Vladimir Voronin is the leader of the Communist Party and a member of Parliament. He was the head of the state between 2001 and 2005 after being elected with 74 votes of the Communist faction. He obtained his second term in 2005 with votes from the opposition – the Christian Democratic People’s Party, the Democratic Party and the Social-Liberal Party. [Mariana Galben, Info-Prim Neo]