The chances for the referendums set to take place in Gagauzia on February 2 to be cancelled as a result of a dialogue between the central and local authorities are minimal. If today, January 22, Prime Minister Iurie Leanca and Speaker Igor Corman, who are taking part in the meeting of the People’s Assembly, aim to convince Comrat not to hold the referendums, they may be disappointed by the result. Such an opinion was stated by the deputy of the United Gagauzia faction in the People’s Assembly Fiodor Gagauz in the public debate “Chances of a civilized dialogue between Chisinau and Comrat and its dangerous alternatives”, staged by IPN Agency.
“The legislation provides that the People’s Assembly can take a decision to organize referendums. I want to note that last November, the People’s Assembly unanimously decided to hold two referendums on February 2. There will be two questions in one referendum, concerning the external development course of Moldova. The voters will receive two ballots. In one of them they will be asked whether they are for the European integration of the country, while in another one the question will be if they are for the Eurasian integration. This is a consultative referendum,” said the deputy.
Another plebiscite suggests adopting a law providing that the Gagauz people will be able to become independent if Moldova loses its status of sovereign state. “Under the legislation, Gagauzia has this right. As the neighboring state takes steps to absorb Moldova, we decided to find a mechanism to avoid this thing. We understand that it is the prerogative of the central authorities to choose the external development course, but we consider that the regions can influence this option,” stated Fiodor Gagauz.
He added that nothing serious will happen and the situation in Gagauzia will not get worse if the central authorities do not create artificial tensions. “The parties increase their popularity ratings by giving Gagauzia as a bad example, but no important issues are addressed. They should better listen to the voice of the Gagauz people. Since the law on the status of Gagauzia was adopted, there has been no serious dialogue between Chisinau and Comrat. In these 19 years, we have knocked at closed doors. We want a dialogue. We recently had a joint meeting of deputy ministers and representatives of the Executive Committee of Gagauzia and of the People’s Assembly. For the first time it was a normal dialogue,” said the deputy.
The debate “Chances of a civilized dialogue between Chisinau and Comrat and its dangerous alternatives” is the 25th of the series “Development of political culture by public debates”, which is supported by the German foundation “Hanns Seidel”.
