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| Dionis Cenuşa | |
The Speaker of Moldova’s Parliament, Democrat Adrian Candu transmitted a political message through his blog the day after President Nicolae Timofti rejected the Democrats’ candidate, oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc, for the post of Prime Minister, invoking integrity-related problems (January 14). By his message, in English, Andrian Candu targeted the Western public, decision makers from Brussels and Washington. Evidently, the PDM and the party’s ‘guardian’ Vladimir Plahotniuc realize that the ‘oligarchic-political’ pyramid can help avoid early legislative elections if they destroy the resistance of President Timofti, who, during the last months of his tenure, opposed the oligarchic system that he unconditionally supported starting with 2012.
In his message, Andrian Candu speaks about the imperative of stabilizing the country and ensuring the rule of law and of the necessity of regaining the confidence of the people and the European partners. The universal solution that is actively promoted by Candu is the nomination of the candidate for premiership fielded by the ‘absolute majority’ under the aegis of the PDM. However, Andrian Candu in his message omits, intentionally most probably, the name of Vlad Plahotniuc, which generates negative reactions in the Western political circles, including in Brussels and Washington.
Message to the Europeans and the West?
The dissemination of a political message in English is nothing else but an attempt by the Democrats to impose their viewpoint in the European/Western public area before their political opponents do this first. We thus witness a competition for shaping the opinion about Moldova in the European environments, where the Democrats try to impose their will. Andrian Candu’s message presents the political reality in a distorted way as President Timofti and other political players are unfairly accused of not respecting the rule of law, the people and the foreign partners. The message actually signals that the Democrats do not manage to secure political support at internal level and thus resort to external levers to influence the ‘revolting’ President. The Democrats’ attempt is yet senseless because the name of Vlad Plahotniuc became a kind of political jargon with which the European officials associate political corruption and the capturing of the state institutions in Moldova. Also, Andrian Candu’s efforts are undermined by the rather informal support received by President Timofti from the European political circles and the U.S.
Pro-European ‘absolute majority’?
Andrian Candu’s message contains a series of insincerities, including the idea that the absolute majority around the PDM is pro-European. Few in the country and practically no one in Europe still believe that the current legislature includes authentic pro-European parties. If these had existed, the oligarchization of politics, bank frauds and simulation of a rule of law system would have been not only improbable, but also impossible. It’s not clear how the 14 ex-Communists brought by the PDM into the ‘absolute majority’ were converted to the European agenda overnight after they earlier opposed the Association Agreement with the EU. But Andrian Candu’s role is to promote the PDM’s political agenda that is aimed at protecting the oligarchic-political pyramid of Vlad Plahotniuc, not to have a sincere dialogue with the Europeans. For now, the propagandistic machinery of Vlad Plahotniuc loses to the anti-Plahotniuc rhetoric that continues to extend in the country and abroad.
Instead of conclusion…
The competition for influencing the external public area is increasingly evident. Andrian Candu’s message intended for the European/Western public reveals the interest of the Democrats, which is of Vlad Plahotniuc, in improving their image abroad and in promoting the own version of the Moldovan political reality. Even if the Europeans are no longer naïve to believe in the sincerity of the ostensible pro-European parties of Moldova, the propagandistic pro-Plahotniuc machinery is making effort to ‘sell’ its version of the Moldovan political reality to the European political circles. The stake is big – avoidance of early parliamentary elections or conservation of the oligarchic system managed by Vlad Plahotniuc.
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