[Info-Prim Neo analysis, part II] The first part of this analysis, {published on October 31, 2011}, focused on the behavior of the parliamentary opposition in the context of the very harsh, life-and-death political struggles, fought on the Moldovan political arena during a long period. One of the conclusions reached was that the Communist Party (PCRM) aims to cause early legislative elections and return to power after them, to dismiss the Filat Government, to weaken the position of all the member parties of the Alliance for European Integration (AEI), and to remove government officials from the political life for good. It seems that similar goals are pursued by a part, if not all the parties of the AEI. This explains the use of life-and-death methods in the internal political confrontations. “There are rumors that there is somebody who wants to eliminate Vlad Filat from the political life. That ‘somebody’ may be a political person or a group of political figures from Moldova. But the rumors that the Premier also aims to eliminate important politicians from the political and economic life should also not be neglected,” reads the first part of the analysis. The phenomenon of elimination, annihilation of the political opponents is not new in Moldovan politics. In an interview given to Info-Prim Neo on March 1, 2010, the former EU Special Representative to Moldova Kalman Mizsei said: “Challenges are abound. The critical one is that on both radical ends of the political spectrum people are afraid that the other side wants to annihilate them.” (see: http://www.info-prim.md/?a=10&nD=2010/03/01&ay=29134). Though not directly, Kalman Mizsei referred to the situation in the period of the Communist government. Now the situation is worse because not only the political opponents, but also the political partners, and not only the extremist, but also the center parties, have intentions to annihilate/liquidate each other. There is a total political war – all against all! Why so? What reasons make the Moldovan politicians to conduct life-and death struggle? [The first group of reasons] concerns the political model of government that the modern political parties inherited from the previous regime. Both the Soviet government, during seven decades of the last century, and the Communist government of the first decade of this century were based on the unlimited power of a party, which in fact meant the power of one person. It seems that the contemporary parties/ leaders still believe in a possible return to the authoritarian model of government and treat the political adversaries and partners as political enemies that must be removed. The Moldovan political class has not yet fully realized that the epoch of Bolshevik-like government passed irreversibly and it was replaced by the epoch of coalition government, as it happened long ago in Europe, of which we want to become part. This political class learns the lesson only now, but encounters difficulties and often recedes by clinging to lost illusions. The thirst for unlimited power characterizes the entire political spectrum, including the parties with modest parliamentary weight. For example, several days ago everybody seriously used the formula about the “crucial position of the Liberal Party in case the PDM and PCRM reach an agreement on the election of the head of state...” The emphasis on the word ‘crucial’ seemed neither comic, nor lacking the sense of measure in relation to a party that hold only several seats of MP. It seems that this party attracted not only a large part of the voters of the former party of the ‘former bearded man’, but also the overstated approach to its own importance in the Moldovan politics. Examples of such behavior were shown by the PDM and PL during the negotiations on the formation of the AEI at central level and by all the components of the ruling alliance during the failed negotiations on the formation of alliances at local level. Recently, Prime Minister Vlad Filat, the leader of the PLDM, said the Liberal-Democrats had ‘only’ 31 seats in Parliament and cannot change the difficult political situation. If 31 seats are ‘only’, while the 42 seats of the PCRM are insufficient for being part of the government coalition, we must understand that the Premier can undertake the task of taking this country out of chaos only if the country gives him a majority of seats of MP or even the constitutional majority, as in the case of the PCRM. Otherwise, he will not. A large part of the country’s problems are generated by the shortage of political culture in the political class and Moldovan society in general. We can say that the ‘life-and-death struggles’ are due namely to the shortage of political culture or because the political culture is understood incorrectly and manifests itself by intolerance, inability to accept the existence of another viewpoint, to negotiate and reach compromises for the country’s benefit. We have a political class in transition and it behaves like this. [The second group of reasons] of the ‘life-and-death struggle’ also derives from the transition state of the Moldovan political elite, but is related especially to the economic aspect of the social life. Most of the representatives of this elite are beneficiaries and victims of the period of transition from planned economy to market economy, of redistribution of the property and financial flows, of sudden impoverishing of massive groups of people and overnight enriching of certain groups guns under the coat”, the guns being used for defense and other goals.... Kalashnikov was and remains one of the instruments used in a figurative sense in the business relations with opponents, partners, the state and the population. These instruments started to be used at political level as well. It can’t be otherwise as politics is nothing else but a continuation of economy... Therefore, all the political players make use of the political instruments for exerting pressure, blackmailing, threatening, corruption, etc., mainly for economic purposes. It was like this in the period of the Communist government, but everything was hushed up then. Until recently, the intentions to annihilate the rivals, including political one, were put into practice by making spectacular arrests, especially on Friday evening, opening several criminal cases against the same persons, intimidating the persons through the police, today the annihilation has the form of raider attacks, monopolization of entire economic sectors, and making of revelations by using political-media instruments. The process of settling accounts usually consists of several rounds. Society remains confused and frightened as a result of such shows. These reasons for war do not include our politicians’ statements about ‘principles, values and national interest’. They were discredited irreversibly. The only possible solution for the political elite is the political will to overcome this state of affairs. It is first of all in the interest of the political elite and then of society. The political “Kalashnikov” guards the businesses, property, the life and the future of the Moldovan elite. Maybe before or together with the agreements on the election of the head of state, the senior Moldovan politicians, regardless of the political orientation, should sign a political-economic nonaggression pact and swear to obey the law and the moral principles, if they do not want to remain prisoners of the current state of affairs with unpredictable consequences. The real, non-simulated justice sector reform may be the next step... [Valeriu Vasilica, Info-Prim Neo]