A harsh political confrontation has persisted during three months, generating instability and many risks to Moldovan society. The period of 45 days during which a Government was to be invested or Parliament was to be dissolved is expiring. Respectively, according to the legal provisions, this period of political crisis is to end. No matter whether this period comes to an end or not, what matters for society is the reasons and manifestations of this period of turmoil and its effects on society in general. Such aspects were discussed by the participants in IPN’s public debate “Components of political confrontation and impact of this on society”.
Expert in political sciences Victor Stepaniuc, ex-deputy prime minister, said the “political confrontation” from the perspective of political theory represents intensification of the political struggle that is something permanent in democratic societies and not only. In democratic societies, this political struggle is more visible and takes place according to a number of rules, including multipartitism, pluralism of opinions, etc.
“When we speak about political confrontation, we mean particular escalation, activation of political forces. The contradictions between them grow and become more evident. What are the causes? The specialty literature depicts four-five main causes. It goes to the confrontation between two elites – the government and the opposition – and to the confrontation between the masses and the elite from the peak of the state power. Another type of confrontation can be based on the interests of oligarchic groups. Surely, there can be confrontation between geopolitical players and the Republic of Moldova forms part of these areas where the large geopolitical payers influence the political class in our country and this leads to the intensification of the political struggle,” explained Victor Stepaniuc.
According to him, in the case of the Republic of Moldova, the political struggle became more intense primarily between two elite groups. One of them is the one that ruled until 2020, while the other group is the one that tries to take over as a result of the presidential elections of November 2020. The acts of these elite groups should be analyzed from legal viewpoint so as to see if they act within the constitutional limits and what their position according to which they enjoy the greatest legitimacy means. “The next stage of confrontation is the political crisis that often has two serious consequences. Either the political system is restored according to particular anarchy, after a particular blockage, or this political system is reformed or modified basically. I would say that we haven’t yet reached a political crisis in its classical meaning. We have primarily political confrontation that for now remains in the constitutional boundaries, even if there are different interpretations,” stated the expert.
Political analyst Anatol Țăranu said that in the political life, there is always the element of political confrontation, being the particularity of this area of human activity. “It’s hard to imagine political life without political confrontation. The problem is that this confrontation is of different intensity and the conflict potential of concrete actions on the political arena should be determined. I would add here that the political confrontation is an imminent element of the political life and political actions,” said the analyst.
According to him, in the political life the political competition or political action is usually based on two elements. There is generally a majority that is in power and dictates the rules of the game and there is the political opposition. By definition, there is a permanent state of conflict or confrontation between these two political entities.
“The conflict intensity level of the competition between the majority and the opposition actually reveals what is necessary and what is not necessary to society. Usually, when the conflict level is very high, the political life turns into chaos and the developments have an impact on society. When the confrontation is solved in a civilized way and the provisions of the law are obeyed unconditionally, the confrontation is beneficial to the political process and to society in general,” stated Anatol Țăranu.
The public debate “Components of political confrontation and impact of this on society” is the 179th installment of IPN’s project “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates” that is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
