The numerous small victories scored by the Euro-skeptical parties in the European states are negative signals for Moldova’s pro-European approach, expert in political sciences Dionis Cenusa says in an analysis article for IPN Agency.
According to him, the larger is the number of EU states that become dominated by nationalist feelings, the lesser will be the already small extension appetite of the EU. Also, the multiplication of the Euro-skeptics in the European governments can influence the volume of external assistance in the medium-term, which is inevitably decreasing for the countries from the European neighborhood owing to the Brexit.
The advancing of nationalists in Europe opens up new opportunities for the Russian propaganda, which will actively promote the views of Euro-skeptics in Europe. As a result, the anti-European feelings existing in Moldovan society will be fueled.
The political nationalism and economic decline will strengthen the arguments of the Euro-skeptics in Moldova and other countries of the neighborhood, where the Eurasian projects of Russia will gain more ground.
With the visible emergence of anti-European nationalists, the pro-reform parties in Moldova could lose important allies in the West. Moreover, if the EU becomes too weak, the conditionality elements imposed by it on Moldova will lose any effect.
Dionis Cenusa noted that the nationalist narratives in Europe can dynamite the nationalist confrontations in Moldova, where the pro-Russian forces attribute a crucial role to the partnership with Russia in guaranteeing the Moldovan statehood and identity, while the unionists become more influential political players that are more tolerated by the people.
In such conditions, the attempt to federalize the country could be rerun so as to create hardly surmountable additional obstacles to the political extension of the unionists and restoration of the popularity of the pro-European forces, concluded the politologist.
