IPN analysis: Moldovan society is again called to ‘battle fronts’. Some call on the people to support the Pro-Moldova public assembly that will be staged by the ruling political parties on November 3, 2013. Others call on them to boycott it or to take part in a counter-demonstration organized by not clear who. The arguments between the two camps reached high temperatures, while the camps themselves extended their borders more than in any other case after April 7, 2009.
Why so much fuss about an ordinary street event that does not hold interests even for the media? There are several possible answers in this respect.
One. The event is organized by certain political parties, while other political parties normally want to diminish its importance and impact as part of the political struggle. The struggle becomes tougher as, on the one hand, the ruling parties want to strengthen their position in order to remain in power, while the opposition, on the other hand, wants and has the right to want to take its place.
Second. The November 3 event is expected to bring together several thousand people or even more so that the danger of strengthening the position of one side becomes real for the other side. The party ‘jealousy’ becomes more evident given that it is less than a year until the next legislative elections. In the remaining period, there may be no pretexts or possibilities for staging a similar large-scale event. Thus, this event may remain in the people’s memory and in the videos that will be used to make advertisements for the next election campaign.
Three. But points 1 and 2 of this enumeration could seem illogical or not at all truthful if the topic of the November 3 event was different. Making the European integration process the topic of a public meeting is a rather ingenious move of the ruling parties – the PLDM, PDM and PLRM – and a sufficiently detrimental move for the political, parliamentary and extraparliamentary opposition that is against the meeting. Volens-Nolens, the European or Eurasian integration of Moldova became the headline of the political agenda of the Moldovan parties. The things stated until now refer to elements of internal political confrontation aimed at maintaining or taking over the power inside the state.
Four. The external stake is the most important one. The Communist opposition, and the Socialist and other kinds of oppositions too, have long maintained that the current government is illegal and should thus leave so that early parliamentary elections could take place. In support of this thesis, the opposition mounts regular protests that bring together an increasing number of people. But this only argument of the illegality of the government hasn’t yet produced a notable result. If the opposition does not manage to remove the pro-European parties from power by the end of 2014, the initialing and signing of the Association Agreement between Moldova and the EU becomes imminent. Moreover, the current components of the European Parliament and of the Moldovan Parliament will make effort for the agreement to be ratified so as to bring the political dispute between the pro-European Moldovan power and the pro-Eastern opposition as regards the country’s geopolitical orientation and development course to an end. Even if it may seem surprising, this is the prospect that the November 3 meeting will open, if it succeeds. That’s why the pro-Eastern opposition is intransigent towards Sunday’s assembly.
Maybe it is not right for a large-scale national assembly with such a stake to be organized by political parties. Maybe those who say that such a meeting should be staged by civil society or a national organizational committee are right. On the one hand, there is no time left for regrouping. On the other hand, as we cannot expect the internal and external opponents to stop exerting pressure after Sunday, such initiatives may be necessary in continuation so that those with objections are able to do things, not only to state things.
It’s true that the current government has great sins before Moldovan society and wants to remove them, including by the November 3 demonstration. But the dangers to the European integration process will not become smaller. On the contrary, they will grow if the pro-Europeans do not support this initiative to show that the European course is backed by more people than the opposition asserts.
Yes, the current government played the shrewd when it assumed the merits (and risks too if it fails) for this necessary and important event. But this is what we asked from it during the last few years – to stop settling accounts and to work together to promote the really important interests of the country. We maybe should now follow their example. If the government sees us many and united, it may take our opinions into account? Sunday’s assembly is a good occasion for putting questions and looking for answers as to the role and responsibility of everyone in this life. If not, not even the Vilnius Summit is guaranteed.
Valeriu Vasilică, IPN
