Even if the political forces associated with the EU that can enter Parliament after the elections flirt with the unionist idea, they refuse to assume it fully for electoral reasons, political pundit Dionis Cenusa wrote in an analysis article for IPN Agency.

The politologist said Maia Sandu is practically the only popular political leader who, even if she regularly pleads for unionism, prefers to keep this separately on the political agenda of her party (PAS).

Other political parties with clear unionist views, but with an inferior electoral basis, tend to compare unionism with the European re-integration of Moldova and the return to the European system of values.

According to Dionis Cenusa, there are at least three approaches to the unionist idea.

The first approach is the historical-reparatory one which centers on the restoration of historical justice as regards the unity of the Romanian territories that was destroyed by more powerful geopolitical players in the 20th century. In this regard, Moldova’s statehood is a temporary variable that will lose its relevance after the reunification with Romania.

Through the angle of the second, pragmatic approach, the union with Romania is an objective and urgent necessity determined by the inherent incapacity of the Moldovan political class to rule the country efficiently and for the benefit of public interest.

The third approach to unionism is the precautious one. This does not deny the essence of unionism and recognizes the historical arguments, but is reticent to the idea because it anticipates a series of risks that are ignored by the first two approaches.

The key preoccupation is related to the explosiveness that the unionist project can generate for the internal stability in Moldova and the region.

At internal level, the relations of Chisinau with the regions populated by Russian-speaking minorities will be seriously affected and new separatism movements will become inevitable. At foreign level, the bilateral relations between Romania and Ukraine will worsen.

The attempt to reunify Romania can be used by Russia to justify an eventual thawing of the Transnistrian conflict, concluded the politologist.