The current government is in a very serious crisis of credibility and this crisis leads to two effects. The first is the growing popularity of the Eurasian integration ideas, the rise of the Socialist Party and Usatyi’s party. On the other hand, a much more recent effect, and therefore much less institutionalized, is this movement against the center-right parties, which is about one year late compare to the strengthening of the center-left political forces. Despite all tactics, internal political crises, and positioning of parties, Moldova remains anchored in the Association Agreement with the EU, the implementation of which is a legal obligation, said Nicu Popescu, expert with the European Institute for Security Studies in Paris, IPN reports.
In an interview published in the newsletter “Synthesis and Foreign Policy Debates”, produced by the Foreign Policy Association in concert with Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, the expert says that despite these political storms in Chisinau, today there are several anchors that keep Moldova into the European space than there were, for example, 13 months ago, before the decision to remove the visa regime. And this, obviously, has beneficial effects, the trend being still positive, despite the constant crises of the Moldovan political class.
According to Nicu Popescu, in the recent years there has been a decline in the public support for the European integration idea. These trends have several explanations. One explanation is that, unlike during the Communist government, there is less political consensus among the elites regarding the European integration. In other words, during the Communist government, both the Communists and the opposition had an open pro-European message. Virtually the entire political class, at least formally, spoke with one voice.
With respect to governance, Nicu Popescu said any government is disappointing. “Governments disappoint in good times, but during economic crises they disappoint even more. And obviously, they disappoint even more against the dysfunctionalities showed by the government in Chisinau. When referring to failures, I mean primarily lack of progress in fighting corruption, but also the conflicts within the coalition, breaking of alliances and parties, failure to form a majority government ... So, this situation of permanent political scandal does not look good in any country,” he said.
He added that in the situation when the government hasn’t practically done anything to fight corruption and has been systematically involved in quarrels and competitions, part of the disappointment with the government was projected on the idea of European integration.
“As far as I am concerned, this is how the pro-European consensus has been eroded. Much of this erosion would have been inevitable even if the Chisinau government fought against corruption and did not argue within the coalition. We could have anyway had this significant drop in the support for European integration but that would have dropped from 65-70 percent to perhaps 50 percent. But obviously, the current government’s behavior has made it worse,” stated Nicu Popescu.
