Expert: West Refused to Lend a Helping Hand to Plahotniuc

RTA expert Sergey Cheban believes that Brussels and Washington have decided to gradually develop the success of ACUM and make the Sandu-Nastase bloc the core of the future political ‘center’ of Moldova. “Against the background of constant speculation about the format of the ruling coalition in Parliament, Europe’s silence on the topic of the Moldovan elections looks eloquent: the ACUM bloc consistently renounces any union with the Party of Socialists or Plahotniuc’s Democrats, and Brussels cannot demonstrate its involvement in this fundamental choice of the Moldovan right. Although, of course, the influence of the European Union on the ACUM strategy is well known to all”, said Cheban. “The development of the situation after the parliamentary elections suggests that Moldova’s international partners decided not to lend a helping hand to Plahotniuc and the Democratic Party. Sandu and Nastase are completely banned from uniting with the Democratic Party, and the probable union of the Democratic Party and the socialists will be certainly criticized in Brussels. By and large, Plahotniuc has no good way out either in the current situation or in the global sense: it seems that the US and the EU have decided to progressively develop the success of the ACUM and strengthen their influence, using the foothold of 26 seats in Parliament,” says the expert. Sergey Cheban suggests that in the future the right may try to form a political ‘center’ around which all the ‘progressive’ forces of Moldova will be called to unite in the struggle against the oligarchy. This is the principal task of ACUM: not to respond to the invitations of socialists or democrats, but to become the core of the Moldovan government, redirecting the political and financial support of Brussels on themselves. “For the time being, Maia Sandu and Andrei Nastase acted as idealist politicians, technocrats, untainted by corruption, power sharing and illegal machinations. The PAS and DA movements were the embodiment of a pure European dream, but now it is time to make the ACUM bloc a capable political force that can not only protest, but also influence the situation in the country. This means that in the near future the role of the ‘right-wing’ faction in the Parliament will be strengthened by the support from the EU,” the expert is sure. According to Cheban, it is significant that against the background of a general pause in relations between Chisinau and Brussels, the EU has allocated another grant for a project to empower citizens of Moldova with a total cost of 5 million euros. “European advisers for Moldova have not yet been appointed in state agencies, previous completed their mission at the end of 2018. At the interstate level, macro-financial assistance has been frozen and is unlikely to resume in the near future. Against this background, 5 million euros come to the country, but are distributed in a highly personalized way – among pro-Western NGOs and loyal local authorities. The next tranche of assistance will certainly come ‘personally’ for implementation of some humanitarian program of the ACUM bloc for development of the political culture of the Moldovan society,” the analyst supposes. “Of course, this state of affairs can not suit Plahotniuc, because it is a direct threat to his power, albeit in the relatively long term. Undoubtedly, we have yet to witness a serious struggle for European attention and finance. Plahotniuc may resort to the usual tactics of blackmailing Europe: the ruling group will try to take pro-European forces hostage, threatening to marginalize and destroy the ACUM bloc. To do this, the regime can use all the resources of law enforcement agencies, courts and the media under its control to denigrate 26 ‘right-wing’ deputies as bad as possible. The democrats will for sure achieve some success, but it is obvious that such actions will only push the European Union to accelerate the cleaning of power in Moldova,” said Sergey Cheban.