The electoral activism at the parliamentary elections in Romania this time is more moderate than at other elections. It is due to the pandemic and because the results are rather clear, political analyst Nicolae Negru stated in IPNs’ public debate “Parliamentary elections in Romania: what Moldovans with Romanian nationality know about them and what they vote?”.
He noted that polls show the PNL is likely to win the elections. “Until now, the most serious struggle was between the PNL and PSD, the PSD having this discredited image that somehow discredited Romania. The situation is now different as the PSD is different. I started to clean itself and some of the odious persons no longer form part of its electoral list. That’s why the temperature now seems to be not so high. The activism is thus more moderate,” said Nicolae Negru.
As to the Moldovan authorities’ attitude to these elections, the analyst said these showed particular reasonableness in relation to the electoral process in Romania. “Even if the relations weren’t always warm, when it went to elections, the authorities in Chisinau didn’t place obstacles. Surely, there were calls from the Socialists, from Dodon. We know that there are political forces that are hostile to the rapprochement between the Republic of Moldova and Romania. But at least in the recent past, at the level of executives, I haven’t heard Bucharest or the Embassy of Romania complaining that hindrances were placed to them in establishing polling places. This shows there are no special problems in this regard and they are solved somewhere in other places and do not appear in public.”
Nicolae Negru noted the Romanian voters in the Republic of Moldova have a particularity. The voters who remained at home are well-informed, are very active and always keep an eye on the developments in Romania. Even if a part of those who obtained a Romanian passport did it in order to gain advantages, for example to be able to gravel in Europe, another part obtained it for their creed and ideals. These remained in the Republic of Moldova, where they can inform themselves about the electoral programs of the electoral contenders of Romania. “There are now these methods, the Internet that can furnish any kind of information. However, we see the candidates being less active here, in the Republic of Moldova, than at the previous, presidential elections, for example. It is probably due to the pandemic. Nevertheless, we saw also the presence of candidates coming from the Republic of Moldova.”
The analyst anticipates that at the parliamentary elections in Romania, the top places will be challenged by the PNL and PMP, while the other parties could be much behind these two.
The public debate “Parliamentary elections in Romania: what Moldovans with Romanian nationality know about them and what they vote?” was the 160th installment of the series “Developing political culture through public debates” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
