Opposition slams new Cabinet members, program

The program of the new Moldovan Government, presented to the MPs by Zinaida Greceanai, has been harshly criticized by the leaders of Moldova Noastra Alliance (AMN) and Democratic Party (PDM), by other opposition deputies. Although saying he is satisfied with the new Cabinet members, the leader of the Christian-Democratic People’s Party (PPCD), Iurie Rosca, has announced his faction will abstain from voting, to show they are an opposition party. Communist MP Nicolae Bondarciuc has had but appraisals for the new Cabinet and its program, Info-Prim Neo reports. Subsequently, the program and the Cabinet have been approved of with the vote of 56 deputies (55 Communists and a non-party MP, the chairman of the Public Administration Committee, Vladimir Ciobanu.) Presenting the program and her Cabinet, Zinaida Greceanai has said the ministers are motivated by the need to step up the reforms aimed at bettering the Moldovans’ living standards and at getting closer to the European living standards. “Loyal to the vector of European integration, we realize this ruling program will be the foundation of the future relationships between Moldova and the EU,” Zinaida Greceanai said. “As the European Union evaluates the implementation of the Moldova-EU Action Plan, we’ll focus on the need to get a negotiating mandate from the member states as to start a new legal document after the expiration of the Partnership and Cooperation Accord next June,” Zinaida Greceanai said. The activity program, named “Progress and integration,” has five compartments – enhancing government, strengthening democratic institutions, insuring Moldova’s security and integrity, enhancing economic competitiveness and promoting social inclusion. Realizing the tight period impels immediate action, Zinaida Greceanai has stated the first task of the first governing days is cutting the red tape in taking decisions, eliminating the formal, declarative decisions, strengthening strategic planning by creating a unity of policies within the Governments’ Apparatus. According to Zinaida Greceanai, a major priority will be enhancing the quality of governing, as the relevant efforts will focus on three main streamlines: the reform of the public administration, making more efficient the public expenses and fighting the corruption at all administration levels. “In order to strengthen the democratic institutions, we’ll focus on three basic directions: the freedom of the mass-media, the active dialogue with the civil society and the independence of justice,” she said. In order to insure the security of the state, the new Government will support the efforts of reintegrating the country, of maintaining the neutrality and good neighborhood policies and of promoting the state’s economic safety, what implies to demilitarize the state, to democratize and strengthen the trust between the Nistru’s two banks. As for the economy, the new Cabinet will focus on strengthening the energy sector and on diminishing the travel restrictions conditioned by the geographic situation by developing new ways of access. Enhancing the economic competitiveness is one of the Executive’s major challenges, Greceanai added. Taking MPs’ questions, Zinaida Greceanai has assured the new Cabinet will be open and transparent in its relationship with the Parliament. More opposition MPs have had objections as to the inclusion into the program of such principles as the neutrality, consecrated in the Constitution, and the demilitarization of the state. In their speeches the opposition MPs have especially criticized the activity program. Deputy Vitalia Pavlicenco, the president of the National-Liberal Party, has criticized the title of the program, “progress and integration,” but not “progress and European integration”: “Where do you want to integrate yourselves? Into Transnistria, into Russia, Belarus or into Kazakhstan, that is in the Euro-Asian Union, don’t you?” Vitalia Pavlicenco has said the new government will be an electoral, populist and repressive one and announced her party will shortly make know their shadow cabinet which will monitor the government, from which they expect nothing good. The leader of Social-Democrats, Dumitru Braghis, has stated the Government’s program is more a political document, not a program, a document containing more statements and not tasks and objectives and does not show how such objectives can be attained. He is dissatisfied the new program does not contain previously adopted programs as the Poverty Reduction, Export Development or the Moldova-EU programs. Liberal-Democratic leader Vladimir Filat has said most of the proposed ministers had worked in the Tarlev Cabinet, too, and are responsible for the situation the country is in, while the new program is an attempt of the authorities to pack the discouraging realities in a beautiful dress. Filat has remarked the lack of such notions as European integration, local autonomy, poverty reduction. AMN leader Serafim Urecheanu has doubted the success of the activity program of the new Government which wants to continue the policies of the former cabinet. The AMN leader finds the promised change has not occurred either conceptually, or humanly. According to him, the people forwarded in key-positions in the Cabinet have worked for the last years in the previous government. The PPCD leader, Iurie Rosca, has had praises for the Cabinet members put up by Zinaida Grecenai, whom he has described as a personality imposing respect and trust. “The list of the future Government is formed of young, competent and promising people, we think most of the nominations to be successful. We find it’s a team formed almost totally from technocrats,” Iurie Rosca said. He has given a positive appreciation to the program, noticing as a positive element “the lack of any ideological tricks and a pragmatic approach of the problems faced by the Government.” The leader of the Democratic Party, Dumitru Diacov, has mentioned the program is mostly a political and declarative one, and not a program per se. Diacov hopes the new Government will not become the electoral staff for the Communists Party and has remarked that Zinaida Greceanai’s professional experience imposes a little bit of optimism in this respect.