Socialist MP Gaik Vartanean thinks the Moldovan government was “paralyzed” over the last few years. “Many agencies didn’t work properly, and some remain unfunctional today – from the regulatory agencies, to defense, to law enforcement and the judiciary.” Vartanean said the Prosecutor General’s Office was standing out as an example of a non-functional institution, “For a month now, prosecutors have been refusing to understand that the government changed and people expect the implementation of the de-oligarchization Declaration into practice.” This was stated at a public debate titled “Freeing Moldova from ‘Oligarchy’ and ‘State Capture’: Limits of Legality,” organized by IPN and Radio Moldova.
Gaik Vartanean says both notions of ‘oligarchization’ and ‘state capture’ have been talked about publicly for a few years now. “To some extent, this is what voters also spoke about on February 24, when they voted for the two largest opposition forces, and this is what Parliament talked about when it adopted the June 8 Declaration at its inaugural meeting.”
“Everybody is perfectly aware that the Democratic Party and the governmental agencies were just tools that Vladimir Plahotniuc was using for his business ventures. He was using these agencies to rake in profits from state-owned companies; he was profiting from all sorts of schemes and all his contacts. The three million Moldovans were mere statistics to him suffering from poverty, corruption, and captured institutions,” declared Vartanean.
The Socialist lawmaker believes that the reformation of the Moldovan system should be carried out by professional, uncompromised people, for whom honor and professionalism are above party interests. This would be in contrast to the two main motives which Vartanean believes drove the previous government: “greed for money and fear of criminal prosecution”.
According to Gaik Vartanean, the PSRM-ACUM coalition appeared “because people wanted to see the Plahotniuc regime gone”. Vartanean admits that for many the coalition came as a surprise, but he claims that now it has an approval rating as high as 80%.
The Socialist MP claims that the current government, on the one hand, initiated the process of "de-oligarchization" and, on the other hand, initiated the process of re-establishing relations with foreign partners. At the same time, he agrees that good social projects must be continued.
Gaik Vartanean also believes that the Democratic Party belongs to the past now and doesn’t think that Dumitru Diacov will be successful in reviving it. “It is already a ‘political corpse’ and this will be demonstrated in the local elections, because now there won’t be anyone forcing ordinary people and public sector employees to vote for the Democratic Party,” the PSRM deputy says.
The public debate “Freeing Moldova from ‘Oligarchy’ and ‘State Capture’: Limits of Legality” is the 113rd installment of the “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates” Series, held with the support of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.