Speaker of Parliament Andrian Candu regrets that the government entered serious political confrontations, including European ones. He confessed this in a special edition of the program “Moldova live” produced by Moldova 1 channel on July 12, 2018. The regrets seems to express an intention and hope that despite partial misunderstandings, the Republic of Moldova will continue on the European path. As if the Moldovan rulers also have other options. In this regard, the Speaker reminds the biblical parable of the prodigal son, who, after being driven by a sense of adventure, decides to return to the correct path and to repent.
However, we should not hurry to draw conclusions. The invoking of the parable does not mean that the core scenario of this will repeat as repentance should be sincere and based on truth. We know that only the truth can make us free. To begin with, we should see what the Speaker means when he speaks about misunderstandings? This could start with the clarification of the simplest things. For example, is it true that representatives of the EU exerted pressure on him to make him become involved and influence the court decision on the Chisinau mayoral elections? Maybe he is ready to admit that he didn’t correctly understand the messages of the EU representatives? It is a matter of principle or it would mean that he stifles the feeling of dignity and yields to unorthodox pressure for the sake of the continuation of the European integration. Do we really need such concessions? As they say: Blessed is the man who does not walk in the advice of the wicked ...!
The answers to the formulated questions are not trivial. They are inconvenient because both Mister Andrian Candu and his party colleagues, assisted by the media holding that serves their interests, spread untruths, such as that the European Parliament’s resolution concerning the political crisis in the Republic of Moldova following the invalidation of the early mayoral elections in Chisinau (2018/2783(RSP)) was adopted with the hall empty, in the absence of MEPs, being supported only by the representatives of the European People’s Party (PPE), incited by Maia Sandu and Andrei Nastase, the leaders of the Party “Action and Solidarity” (PAS) and the Party “Platform Dignity and Truth” (PPPDA). We can remind here one of the ten commandments – you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. If the media holding owned by the Democratic Party (PDM) hadn’t dominated the media landscape in our country, each citizen would have seen and heard that the vote on the resolution involved over 70% of the MEPs, more than 60% of whom, representing six of the eight parliamentary groups, voted in favor, ~30% abstained and only ~10% voted against. The resolution and the percentage of its supporters objectively reflect the state of affairs in Moldova.
Surely, we could have ignored the data, but, after the Moldovan rulers dared to reproach the Europeans for not appropriately assessing their reform efforts, the realities can definitely not be ignored. In this connection, the Speaker noted that the authorities assumed what has happened in the country during the past two years, both the successes and failures. Why only during the past two years? The PDM has ruled for nine years! But let’s give up and let’s look only at the past two years. The period witnessed a decline in the democracy, human rights, freedom of expression and judicial independence indexes measured by specialized international institutions. For example, if the roadmap of 2016 envisioned the de-monopolization of the media and the advertising market, why did the situation of the media worsen? The figures mentioned above show the manipulating role of the party-owned mega media holding, confirming once again the constant decline in the freedom of expression rating. Are really those from the European People’s Party and their partners in Moldova really to blame for these developments?
We know that the prodigal sons are wasteful. The suspension of the EU macro-financial assistance following the defective functioning of democratic institutions reminds of this. However, we convince ourselves that the Speaker does not lose his optimism about a return to normality: “We want a solution to be identified so that this situation is overcome. That’s why in September we will invite representatives of the EU to show what was done over the Decision that was adopted in Moldova’s Parliament and to present other results for these to be assessed. The decision about the financial assistance could be changed in September and a new resolution could be adopted in the European Parliament in September”.
The citizens should only take Mister Candu at his word, especially because he tried to persuade us that he has solutions not only for the immediate period, but also for a longer period: “We are for a pro-European government. The Party “Action and Solidarity” and the Party “Platform Dignity and Truth” are the closest to us. There is potential to form an alliance with the PAS and PPDA”. This is an interesting scheme and invitation to cooperate! He said this after earlier the same day he asserted the following from the Parliament’s rostrum: “What would the Democratic Party want politically. For Nastase to take up mayoralty, to stamp on that misery caused by other colleagues of the coalition, to stay there for a year without achieving results, to enter the election campaign where we could point the finger at him and say that he did nothing. This is what we wanted.”
So, during one day, the Speaker showed his wish to cooperate with the opposition and simultaneously to destroy this politically. Why should we not assume that he has similar inclinations in relation to the EU – to pretend to be ready to restore the relations in order to benefit from its resources and to continue the anti-democratic deviations at the same time?
IPN experts
