The referendum on joining the European Union, held on October 20, showed how deep the division in Moldovan society is. If this deep division is not overcome, existential risks threatening the future of the entire population can appear, doctor of history Anatol Țăranu, ex-ambassador, stated in IPN’s public debate “What do Moldovans know about the EU? Gap between expectations and reality". According to him, if there is no comfortable, united, mobilized majority in society, which knows for sure what fundamental goals need to be achieved, society is condemned to stagnation.
Anatol Țăranu noted that in all the 30 years of Independence, the Republic of Moldova has always looked for a path of development. For so long now, it has not been able to choose the model that would allow it to overcome stagnation, first of all from an economic point of view, but also from social viewpoint. Already two generations of Moldovan citizens have lived practically in the conditions of the poorest European country. The social conditions of these people are more than problematic, if they are compared to European standards.
Anatol Țăranu said that the October 20 referendum showed once again that in all these years of existence of the Republic of Moldova, no political party that was in power has really dealt with the union of society, has not united it around a national idea. Moldovan society is one without identity and this circumstance keeps the country stagnant, condemns it to lack of development. Stagnation is the result of the fact that the people are not united to achieve that goal towards which any society aspires.
According to the former ambassador, in the context of the referendum and not only, there were all kinds of scares, including the fact that an eventual accession to the EU would mean war in Moldova, that Russian markets will be lost, although Russia currently accounts for only a few percent of Moldova’s total exports. Research showed that in a society with a low standard of living, any scare very quickly penetrates the information space and expands. And the closure of some of the propaganda information sources does not solve the problem. In order to achieve a high level of information security, the citizens’ standard of living must be raised.
The doctor of history believes that the people need to be more tolerant of each other, to hear each other. Not necessarily to agree with everything, but to reach an agreement on the country's development model, what future they want for themselves and their children.
The public debate entitled "What do Moldovans know about the EU? Gap between expectations and reality” was staged within the project "IPN News Agency for Social Cohesion and Pro-European Moldova", funded by the International Media Support (IMS).
