Expert: Moldova Is Getting More Involved in Domestic Policy of Romania

This is the opinion of the RTA regular author Sergey Cheban, commenting on the results of the voting of Moldovans in the elections to the European Parliament. As the expert notes, the 2019 European elections become a new word in the history of both European integration and the process of implementation of the ‘Greater Romania’ idea, which Bucharest has not given up for a day. “37 thousand citizens of Romania who voted in Moldova are, of course, a drop in the ocean. On the other hand, this figure is much higher than the turnout in 2014 in the previous elections. The trend is very vividly noticeable, and if the interest of Moldovans in the European affairs of Romania does not fall, then in 5 years the figure will be impressive,” Cheban is sure. “Many experts noted that the result of the turnout should be directly associated with a fairly intensive media campaign in Moldova. This is absolutely true and says at least two facts. First: the turnout could be even greater, and in the next elections Bucharest’s political forces will allocate even more funds for campaigning in Moldova and will surely succeed. Second: more and more Moldovan citizens with Romanian passports really feel their political rights and realize themselves as full members of Romanian society. Otherwise, even with a powerful PR campaign, there would be fewer people at the polling stations. This means that Bucharest’s strategy works in practice, and those who received a passport pragmatically to travel and work in Europe, are gradually becoming Romanians, not residents of Moldova with Romanian citizenship,” explains Sergey Cheban. According to the analyst, the active voting of the Moldovans in the European elections can be considered an important precedent for Brussels. “In fact, the residents of the Eastern Partnership country are directly involved in shaping a common European policy today. This is despite the fact that as a state Moldova is hardly ready for further integration into the European community due to unsolvable domestic problems, low level of democracy and non-transparent spending of finances from the EU,” the author notes. These elections to the European Parliament mark another step for Moldova towards political absorption by Romania, Sergey Cheban is convinced. The 2019 campaign showed that all political forces of the Republic of Moldova work ‘closely’ with parties and specific leaders in the neighboring country. “Vlad Plahotniuc’s ruling group is believed to maintain close contacts with the ruling Social Democratic Party of Romania. The ACUM bloc strongly campaigned for the National Liberal Party of Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, which won in Moldova, and in Romania in general,” Cheban reminds. “It is very symptomatic, against the background of a deep domestic political deadlock and uncertainty in the future of the authorities in Moldova, the residents of the country willingly went to the polling stations to settle matters of another state. This raises a direct question: is Moldova and Romania really far from political unity? The National Liberal Party that has long been openly advocating for unirea has won in the Republic of Moldova, despite the fact that Sandu and Nastase – people who failed to form a ruling coalition with the PSRM – campaigned for them. Even in such negative environment, the call of the right opposition brought tens of thousands of people to the polling stations,” the expert says. “By and large, the Republic of Moldova is getting more and more involved in the domestic policy of Romania, while things in its country are worse than ever. This paradox confirms that the architects of unirea in Bucharest are on the right path, which sooner or later will lead to questioning the rationale of existence of Moldova as an independent state,” concludes Sergey Cheban.