The geopolitical rhetoric is extremely visible in the Republic of Moldova. In the case of the presidential elections, this aspect is more conspicuous because there is only one candidate who is the focus of attention rather than the party or the multitude of people who represent this party, said IPN’s senior contributor Dionis Cenușa, a political scientist, researcher at the Institute of Political Sciences at Liebig-Justus University in Giessen.
In the public debate „Presidential elections in the diaspora and geopolitics”, which was staged by IPN News Agency, Dionis Cenușa said we now have candidates who, according to the so-called notion of multi-vector foreign policy, prefer to have a closer relationship or as close relations with the Russian Federation as the Republic of Moldova has with the foreign partners, making reference to incumbent President Igor Dodon.
“We have a category of candidates who are leaning toward the European Union and these candidates, I refer first of all to Maia Sandu, are supported by European political organizations or representatives of these. I refer here to the European People’s Party that, by their pan-European nature, already transmitted messages in favor of candidate Maia Sandu and the general idea with which the Republic of Moldova must ensure transparent, fair elections,” stated the expert.
“We have political parties in the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova that have the status of observers at pan-European parties, have very close contacts and transmit detailed information about the development in the Republic of Moldova. A lot of the criticism formulated by Moldovan parties finds reflection in the reports of the same pan-European parties, the same European players and is uttered from the rostrums of the European Parliament or from many other rostrums.”
The researcher noted that another category of candidates have pro-unionist views and are leaning toward Romania.
According to Dionis Cenușă, some of the political players in Moldova are ready to embrace particular political partnerships with foreign players so as to maximize their electoral chances.
“As there are now no possibilities of having physical meetings, many of the attempts to transfer image to political players in the Republic of Moldova made by foreign players take place at digital level,” concluded the expert.
The public debate “Presidential elections in the diaspora and geopolitics” was the 156th installment of the series “Developing political culture through public debates” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
