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Electoral performance of unionists. Op-Ed by Victor Pelin


https://www.ipn.md/index.php/en/electoral-performance-of-unionists-op-ed-by-victor-pelin-7978_1078024.html

With such leaders as the two representatives of the unionist movement, this no longer needs enemies. We simply don’t need even Igor Dodon as President of the Republic of Moldova for threatening the unionist movement with the banning by law of the given parties...”
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Punishment of the innocent and glorification ... of the defeated

Poverty and the precarious government of the country by an elite group that is corrupt to the core has two visible effects – continuous augmentation of the wave of migration and of the number of those who want to unite with Romania. From this viewpoint, the unionist movement in the Republic of Moldova has a permanently growing potential that is attested by all the opinion polls that show the percentage of the supporters of the union exceeds 1/3 of the Moldovans.

What such a large number of citizens want cannot be overlooked by the politicians who aim to make use of the given potential. There is yet a problem – the large number of politicians who say they are able to achieve the union. Two of them - Octavian Țîcu and Dorin Chirtoacă – competed in the recent presidential elections, leaving their supporters high and dry for an indefinite period. The results are as follows: Octavian Țîcu, the leader of the National Union Party (PUN), won 2% of the poll in these elections, while Dorin Chirtoacă, the leader of the Union Political Movement (MPU), which consists of four unionist parties, managed to gain 1.2% of the ballot.

In should be noted here that before the presidential elections, Dorin Chirtoacă announced that he would withdraw from politics if, in the presidential elections, he gains less than in the municipal elections of October 2019. As he achieved such a result, he has to only deliver his promise. But the situation of the PUN leader Octavian Țîcu is more interesting. He convened the party’s National Political Council, which approved his progress report and dismissed and replaced the vice presidents. It’s hard to understand why, after a disastrous result of only 2%, the party’s leader who achieved this performance kept the post, while the vice presidents were dismissed?

For public opinion, it would be interesting to read the progress report of the PUN leader and the arguments that justify the removal of the vice presidents, not yet of the president of the party, who achieved a derisory score. In the absence of these documents, we can only presume that Octavian Țîcu, who knows well the mentality of Homo Moldovanus Sovieticus, used his knowledge in the field to act according to the famous Soviet saying that reflects the manifestation of the mentality that leads to the punishment of the innocent and glorification of ... the defeated ones. 

Preconditions for transforming PUN into PUMN

After knowing their place, it seems that the two leaders should blame themselves and apologize to the unionist voters. But they didn’t do so. Forgetting about elementary norms of decency, they got into a public dispute. Invoking his higher score compared with Dorin Chirtoacă’s score, Octavial Țîcu publicly displayed his superiority: “The PUN asserted itself as the most important unionist party in the Republic of Moldova, gaining twice more than the Union Bloc (2% as opposed to 1.2%), which consists of four unionist parties. I make a collegial call to the parties of the UNION Bloc to renounce the attacks on the PUN, to withdraw from politicos and to support us from other platforms. Stop splitting the unionists or you will not be understood!

On the other side, Dorin Chirtoacă’s reaction came swiftly. He reminded Octavian Țîcu: “He entered Parliament on account of those who he left (ACUM Bloc) and then attacked and denigrated these continuously for over a year, throwing into the public sphere such stupid phrases as “a woman cannot be the President of the Republic of Moldova”, and now places himself above everyone but is actually in the same mud as Dodon”.

Evidently, such public polemic becomes annoying already. The bellicose leaders have been accusing each other to the detriment of the unionist movement and the truth is they both are true! It’s true that the leader of the UNION Bloc and of the Liberal Party (PL) Dorin Chirtoacă should assume responsibility for such corrupt functionaries as Drăguțanu, Grozavu etc...”. But clarification is needed here. The responsibility should be actually assumed by the president of honor of the PL Mihai Ghimpu, who took part or was a witness to many transactions marred by corruption. But in the current circumstances, Mihai Ghimpu claims to be a unionist, forgetting that when he held the post of acting President of the Republic of Moldova, he declared something else – Moldova’s union with Romania will never take place

On the other hand, Dorin Chirtoacă is entitled to remind the vainglorious claimant to the role of the leader of the unionist movement Octavian Țîcu: “The PL made him minister!” and he then became an MP on account of the ACUM Bloc. However, the most important thing is that, before claiming the role of leader of the unionist movement, the PUN leader should overcome his reflexes of boxer. Or there is the risk that the unionist parties will become a kind of KULAK archipelago, managed by boxed Octavian Țîcu. If something like this happens, the name of the National Unity Party (PUN) should be changed into the National Unity Movement Party (PUMN) (translator’s note: ‘pumn’ translates as fist)

Conclusions

The recent presidential elections amply showed that the mentality of Homo Moldovanus Sovietucul remains invincible on the Bessarabian land.

With such leaders as the two representatives of the unionist movement, this no longer needs enemies. We simply don’t need even Igor Dodon as President of the Republic of Moldova for threatening the unionist movement with the banning by law of the given parties.  

In such circumstances, the unionist voters for now have to only follow the accomplishment of Octavian Țîcu’s intentions to unite all the five parties of the unionist movement into a KULAK archipelago, accompanied by the inevitable modification of the name of the party from PUN into PUMN.