Press Release
on the organization of the debate “The culture of Government formation: What society should know, expect and demand when a Government is being formed in the wake of a political crisis”, the 17th installment of the “Developing Political Culture in Public Debates” Series. Public debates series held by the news agency IPN in its conference room with the support of the German Foundation “Hanns Seidel”
The Project's debates 17 and 18 represent a thematic mini-series related to the profound political crisis that has been affecting Moldova for some time and to the ways of overcoming it. Considering that there are only two ways out of this political crisis – whether a new parliamentary majority and a government are formed or early elections are triggered, it made sense to hold a separate debate on each of these topics. An in-depth and complex discussing of these subjects was needed also because of a lack of transparency in the negotiations for a new government. In an attempt to cover this information gap, IPN had repeatedly asked prime-ministerial candidates as well as parliamentary group leaders to join the debates. However, they failed to accept the invitation within a reasonable time, delaying it “until after the situation is clarified”. Because the press has other roles too besides post-factum coverage, IPN resorted to other means to perform its task of informing and providing civic education to society. Thus, the agency invited noted political pundits, politicians outside Parliament and former politicians with rich experience in negotiations for previous governments. The ongoing crisis and potential solutions were examined mainly from the perspective of the role, rights and obligations the society has in government formation processes.
The speakers in the 17th debate agreed that a Government must be formed, while society must know the truth about its formation; also, the new Cabinet should have the sense of sacrifice in the name of the people’s interests and should govern professionally.
Valeriu Cosarciuc, ex-negotiator and former minister in the first Eurointegration Alliance, said that society should be informed about the real situation. “We must demand that those who will form the Government should be credible, have competences and be ready to make sacrifices.”
Ecaterina Mardarovici, executive director of the Women’s Political Club 50/50 and former MP, considers that society must ask for a professional government. “The people wait for pensions, salaries, security in the street and in business. If they ensure this, the parties will have chances to win in elections. I expect that a new Cabinet will be invested.”
Sergiu Ostaf, director of the Human Rights Resource Center (CreDO), believes that the Government that is being created now will not change the governance program of the previous Cabinet because they do not have time and this lack of time will hinder the creation of a strong governmental team.
Permanent expert to the debates Igor Botan, who heads the Association for Participatory Democracy ADEPT, said that Moldova is in a crisis, but it is not clear what kind of crisis it is - a system one or an elite one. “If it’s a system crisis, the leaders should explain to us why such a crisis struck us after 3.5 years of modernization and Europeanization. If it’s an elite crisis, we should see what we will do next. Until they do not explain what kind of crisis it is, I have no reasons to believe that something good will happen.”
The Agency published 3 news stories on the debate (see the English version of www.ipn.md: on 27.05.13, “Society must know truth about formation of new Government, debates” - http://ipn.md/en/special/54557, on 28.05.13, “New Government’s stake is to promote reforms and agreement with EU, public debate” - http://ipn.md/en/special/54564, “Iurie Leanca will be a good Premier if he has freedom to govern, opinion” - http://ipn.md/en/special/54566.
Valeriu Vasilica, director of IPN
30 May 2013
