Press Release
on the organization of the debate “Which is the lesser evil for Moldova: an unstable parliamentary majority, a minority government, snap elections, unification, something else?”, the 49th installment of the “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates” Series
Public debates series held by the news agency IPN in its conference room with the support of the German Foundation “Hanns Seidel”
Debate 49 brought together Vitalia Pavlicenco, the president of the National Liberal Party; Mihai Petrache, the president of the Centrist Union Party; Victor Alexeev, the president of the Romanian Social Democratic Party's Moldovan Office; Ilian Caşu, the vice president of Our Party; and Igor Boţan, executive director of the Association for Participatory Democracy ADEPT and also the Project's standing expert.
The debate centered on the quasi-general public perception, as reflected by many recent polls, that things in Moldova are going wronger and wronger. This is true at least for the last two years, but also in relation to the expectations that many had some six years ago when the so-called pro-Europeans replaced the Communist government.
The trend became more pronounced in mid-2013 as the current government got mired in deep and enduring episodes of political crisis, and especially during last year's local and then legislative elections, when many were urged, and actually bought it, to vote for the “lesser evil” as opposed to the “greater evil”, or for “our bastards” as opposed to the “the other camp's bastards”.
We were urged to vote for the same parties that had been in government since 2010, even if they failed our expectations, and for that they promised to stay on the European integration course advancing reforms and so on. The alternative was pictured as a geopolitical u-turn that would had implications similar to those seen in Ukraine. We were told that this alternative was the “greater evil”, hence we had no choice but to vote for the “lesser” one.
Today Moldova faces a similar dilemma, only this time it seems extremely hard to tell which the “lesser evil” actually is. The debate topic proposed several options: an unstable parliamentary majority, a minority government, snap elections, unification with Romania or with another country, etc.
Vitalia Pavlicenco, the leader of the National Liberal Party, said the union is the only solution to the profound crisis faced by the Republic of Moldova, when a parliamentary coalition cannot be formed. “Since the period of the Communists until now, things only worsened. Regretfully, Moldova is situated in a part of the world where there is a Russian army making sure that we do not move towards Europe or Romania and this favors unimaginable, absolute corruption. This level of corruption created a situation when several criminal political clans control the Republic of Moldova and each clan fears that the other clan can send them to jail. We have no parliamentary majority at least,” she stated.
“What we, the citizens, did so far for Republic of Moldova was only to accept ad-hoc solutions, which is to choose the lesser evil. The solution of the lesser evil is a short-term on. It does not remove the major handicaps and does not offer lasting solutions. Since the Republic of Moldova started to exist, we have witnessed many such situations when we had to choose the lesser evil and this evil is perpetuated,” said IPN project’s permanent expert Igor Botan, who is the executive director of the Association for Participatory Democracy.
Mihai Petrache, chairman of the Centrist Union Party of Moldova, considers the crisis can be overcome by radically changing the government system. “What we have today is a consequence of the utilization during 20 years of a defective and unbalanced system that generates inefficiency and complete collegial irresponsibility in the government system. We must remove the preconditions that allow the country not to be governed and nobody to bear responsibility for this turmoil that dominates in the country and generates corruption, thefts, nepotism, and prevents any other political force that promotes another idea from succeeding,” he stated, noting he believes the head of state should be elected by the people.
Victor Alexeev, head of the organization in Moldova of the Social Democratic Party of Romania, said he is against the direct election of the President because this will lead to the ‘Turkmenistanization’ of the state, while the Republic of Moldova, being the only country with a parliamentary system of government in the CIS, should remain so. The early legislative elections are not a solution either as these will represent a disaster and will completely change the country’s development course. The Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova is to blame for the current crisis and the Democratic Party can assume responsibility for the pro-European government. “We are aware that we now need a pro-European government. The Republic of Moldova has at most one year to cover the European integration path and to do the reforms required by the European community,” stated Victor Alexeev.
Ilian Casu, deputy head of the Political Party “Our Party”, thinks the early elections are a solution. “The early parliamentary elections are the most viable, democratic and important solution to the political crisis that is becoming worse. It’s no use speaking about a minority government. We already had such a government. Such things as a stable or unstable majority have neither theoretical nor practical value,” he said.
The Agency published 5 news stories on the debate (see the English version of www.ipn.md): on 18.12.15, “Plenipotentiary or minority government, early elections, union with Romania are possible solutions to crisis, IPN debate” - http://www.ipn.md/en/special/73687; on 19.12.15, “Ilian Casu: Early elections are most democratic solution to crisis” - http://www.ipn.md/en/politica/73690; “Mihai Petrache: Government system should be radically changed” - http://www.ipn.md/en/politica/73691; “Victor Alexeev: Early elections will be a disaster for Moldova” - http://www.ipn.md/en/politica/73692; “Vitalia Pavlicenco: Union is the only solution” - http://www.ipn.md/en/politica/73693.
Valeriu Vasilica, director of IPN