Political pundit Igor Botan in a public debate hosted by IPN said that all the legislative bodies in Moldova since the declaring of Independence have had a strong European component, with small exceptions. But now Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia obtained the chance to become candidate countries to be taken out of the gray zone in a situation where Russia started its revanchism. This thing was noted by high-ranking EU officials at the Munich Security Conference at the end of February. For this reason, all the pro-European parties, even if they discuss and criticize the government, must find the possibility to put their shoulder to push the country towards European integration. The majority of citizens support the European course, which is also confirmed by opinion polls.
“If we consult the opinion polls, we see that the interest in or support for European integration is practically constant. I’m referring primarily to the surveys of iData, which manages to have the highest frequency in publishing survey results. It is very interesting that the data consistently show that about 60% of the citizens who are in the country support the European integration course. If we take into account the fact that about a third of the Republic of Moldova’s citizens are abroad and there, in the elections of 2020 and 2021, about 90% supported the European course, we can say that from two thirds to three quarters of the citizens of the Republic of Moldova support the European integration course. And this is very important,” said the permanent expert of IPN’s project.
As regards the citizens’ support for the current government during the two years since the signing of the application for EU membership, the expert said that this is a normal question for both the representatives of the government and those of the opposition. However, we must admit that no other government, in about 30 years, faced the challenges experienced by the current government. “There were five crises that overlapped one another. No government has experienced anything like this – not even the 1992 government that dealt with the hot war in Transnistria. That’s why it is very difficult to compare the performances and failures of this government with those of others. When referring to the promises it made, we should not forget that they were made in a relatively calm situation. Yes, in a pandemic situation, but no one could imagine that the wave of problems that befell the Republic of Moldova would come – the security crisis, the refugee crisis, the energy crisis, which triggered the economic crisis, the inflation shock. Whether they coped or not? I think that up to a certain point they met these challenges,” stated Igor Boțan.
In his opinion, the problem of the current government is that, at times of crisis, it didn’t have the inspiration to ask for the support of pro-European opposition parties to strengthen their government team, etc. “More than half of the parties in the country, which have a certain potential, are pro-European. It is absolutely natural for the government and the opposition, even if they are both pro-European, to have divergences and contradictory debates. This dispute boils down to the quality of the arguments put forward by one participant and the other. As a citizen of the Republic of Moldova who follows the political processes, I would like these discussions to be very constructive. When questions are asked, we should hear well-founded arguments so that the citizens understand that the process is really very difficult. There is no doubt that there are many gaps in governance, but on the other hand, the citizens must understand that the reform process itself is extremely complicated,” noted the expert.
He said that, for example, the sixth attempt to reform the judiciary is currently underway. “And the question is what did the other five attempts to reform the judiciary result in? Why weren’t they successful? There is a problem. They want to reform particular corporations, the elite of society, people who have screwed themselves into office. These know their rights well and say they are the third power. But I say this way: you are the third power, but the first and second powers can be changed at any time and you claim to be irremovable. But why when it comes to pre-vetting or vetting, when the professional qualities and knowledge of the law are not questioned and only the justification of your possessions is doubted, there is a concerted refusal to go through this “purgatory”, explained Igor Boțan.
The expert also said that all the legislative bodies in Moldova had a strong European component, starting with the First Parliament that adopted the Declaration of Independence. “And later, in 2014, this was invoked by the Constitutional Court, which adopted a decision stating very clearly that the Republic of Moldova, based on the Declaration of Independence, cannot have another regional integration course than the European one,” he stated.
The public debate entitled “What traces “two years of decisive steps on the European path” have left” was the 301th installment of IPN’s project “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates” which is supported by the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
