“In the end, the question is what matters most - what Moldovan MPs say or would like to say?”

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Last week's extraordinary meeting of Parliament ended with messages issued by representatives of almost all parliamentary groups. Even if these messages did not have a clear connection with the issues on the agenda, they are of interest for their programmatic character, by which certain positions, interests and future actions of the parliamentary groups were announced.

PDM on counterbalancing and on the Romanian language

The first elected to talk (by speaker Zinaida Greceanîi) was Monica Babuc, a Democratic Party MP, who started her speech with a comparison worthy of a former minister of culture: "It is said that if coal fails to burn you, then it tries to smear you. The smears poured from everywhere...". However, the two distinct aspects that followed, differed from the introduction: 1.The government counters Moldovan citizens from the diaspora with Moldovan citizens from inside the country, raising the society's state of division to higher levels than ever before; 2. The government is asked to include the Romanian language in the Constitution, as the name for the country's state language, currently listed as "Moldovan language".

Almost all following speakers considered it appropriate to denounce both the accusations and the request. According to opponents, the insinuated contradiction is not grounded in reality. They pointed out that the PDM, when it was in power, had the necessary number of mandates, the right of initiative and every opportunity to name the Romanian language as the state language in the Constitution.

Why did the PDM representative choose these two issues? Why did she say what she said? Through the invention of a powerful technological "counterbalance", it seems that the PDM wants to counter another powerful thesis, that of "an attempt to usurp state power", which they claim to have been fabricated by the current government, in order to intimidate and smear the PDM. The PDM considers the "counterbalance" talking point to be promising, because, by protecting the interests of remaining citizens of the country, it wants to maintain their loyalty that it gained or believes it gained through previous "pro-Moldova" projects. However, the February parliamentary elections showed that the PDM practically had no real electoral base in the diaspora. At the same time, considering that not even hypothetical scenarios of accumulating the necessary votes to amend the Constitution are possible, the proposal regarding the "Romanian language" should rather be considered an attempt to create misunderstandings within the governing alliance and to attract the sympathies of the unionists, who are becoming a force to be reckoned with.

PAS: Local autonomy and local elections

What did he say and why did the Party of Action and Solidarity MP, Lilian Carp, say it? The central message referred to the autonomy of local public authorities. In order to be more persuasive, he offered examples of "local autonomy, implemented by the former government through intimidation with the help of criminal cases generated by the Prosecutor's Office" and spoke about the relevant case of Chisinau municipality, where "local autonomy" meant the "illegal appointment of a general mayor by a deputy mayor, who, subsequently, in turn, was illegally named as interim mayor.” He urged the central authorities to ensure real local autonomy and asked the local authorities to become more involved, because "democracy starts from the bottom". Unexpectedly, Lilian Carp also addressed the issue of territorial-administrative reform, long forgotten by previous governments. "The current territorial-administrative division does not lead to development," he argued. In addition to the plainly presented messages,the PAS MP probably wanted to express the formation's serious concerns, or even ACUM's bloc as a whole, regarding the upcoming local elections. Even if he urged all citizens to take part in the elections, "no matter what party you support", his message may still target certain voter segments, including former PDM or "Șor" Party voters, etc. Any party tends to expand its electoral base and this always happens at the expense of weaker or weakened parties. It can't happen at the expense of PSRM, because of several reasons, including the future "non-aggression pact" that is talked about a lot. The territorial-administrative reform could be part of the negotiation process of another agreement, as one of the conditions that PAS or NOW would present PSRM. For tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.

PPDA: "Есть дела по-важнее..." ("We have more important things to do...")

Dignity and Truth Platform MP, Octavian Țîcu, addressed the topic of the two initiatives launched by President Igor Dodon regarding the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Iasi-Chisinau operation and the 660th anniversary of the constitution of the Moldovan state. As a historian, Octavian Țîcu tried to provide convincing evidence that in both cases the announced initiatives are inappropriate and even harmful, because they hold the Moldovan society hostage "in the trenches of the Second World War", as well as in the nets of "Soviet propaganda and the so-called "Russian world". The deputy had a coherent speech held in perfect Russian, because he wanted to communicate directly with Russian-speaking citizens. However, many Moldovans who are not of Russian descent, remain anchored on the shores of Soviet and pro-Russian nostalgia. The large number of President Igor Dodon and PSRM supporters, around half of the total number of voters in Moldova, serve as evidence for this fact, even though statistics show that the population of the country is made up of approximately 80 percent of Moldovans / Romanians.

In this context, it seems that Octavian Țîcu's speech was aimed at socialist coalition partners, or, possibly, ai a segment of socialist voters, whom were once again reminded about the agreement regarding avoiding geopolitical and ideological issues, because these issues divide society. "Есть дела по-важнее..." (" We have more important things to do...") said Octavian Țîcu to Igor Dodon and to the socialist MPs.

PSRM: Face to face with the high expectations of citizens

The PSRM MP, Ion Ceban, theoretically, did not seem to contradict MP Octavian Țîcu. He supported him: “Indeed, the topic of the war is not one for the Chamber of Parliament, it is preferable that it remains within the boundaries of the school, universities and libraries ... ". However, in practice, the topic of war will be be taken out into the streets, to the country's most important public square, with the involvement of a large number of people. Those who disagree have already formed another front and announced another counter-action, with massive participation. In some way, the government was forced to involve itself into this issue, which may highlight disagreements between the coalition partners. Ion Ceban had a calm and peaceful discourse, yet the form was contradicting the essence of the message. "Until June 7, we had a captured state, governed by a single man, via telephone. We had an over the phone democracy". According to him, the one million strong diaspora left the country for several reasons, including the rejection of "over the phone democracy" and lack of hope at home. "On June 7, the Republic of Moldova was an isolated state and was the hostage of the ambitions of a man. Why did we have to continue to endure this?... We are trying to change the situation. There are big changes on the inside... The mayors are no longer afraid and this is our main achievement. However, the expectations are very high”, Ion Ceban told the general public.

It is likely that his target audience was the PSRM electorate, whom he asked to be more understanding and patient, given that he is personally aware that changes happen at a much slower rate than expected and that these changes are not yet irreversible. The choice to repeat twice, during the speech, an extremely negative label, does not seem accidental in this respect: "Sometimes we implement the expected changes in a "foolish/clumsy way", he said repeatedly, possible being under the influence of the most recent example of failure which occurred when the two judges of the Constitutional Court were appointed. Another test lies beforehand - the local elections, in which the PSRM fields Ion Ceban once again as their candidate for the position of general mayor of the capital. Another defeat could cost the candidate and the Socialist Party too much.

In the end, the question is what matters most - what Moldovan MPs say or would like to say?

Valeriu Vasilică, IPN