A Communist Revenge in Moldova? Why Is the Civic Congress Created

Marina Dragalin Voronin’s former associates are consolidating into a new political force that could undermine the positions of traditional Moldovan parties The Common Action Civic Congress Party has been officially established in Moldova. The initiative group included former PCRM members, including Executive Secretary Iurie Muntean and mastermind Marc Tcaciuc. The party, which promises to be the most popular, to work without a leader and shadow funding, plans to return to Moldova ‘all good and bright’. A few days ago, the party congress approved the Charter, the program, the action plan for 5 years and the leading bodies – the Republican and Executive committees. The action plan of the Civil Congress for the next five years concerns the environment, youth development, combating migration, improving the situation of socially vulnerable population. The Civic Congress declared itself as a political movement at the end of July, presenting the party’s world outlook to the public. According to the document, the government aims to “speedily and fundamentally change the entire system of public relations” and considers social progress to be the basis for saving the economy. “We must realize clearly: social justice is not just a value benchmark or a ritual political slogan in the twenty-first century. This is the most important economic factor,” the former communists believe. Civil Congress proposes to modernize Moldova’s dying economy with the three incentives: tax motivation for profits reinvestment in Moldova, elimination of all prohibitive and permissive restrictions in business and a policy on pairing the standards of the EU and CIS free trade zones. The party will be guided by seven principles: engagement, publicity, continuity, solidarity, constructiveness, unselfishness and effectiveness. In general, as can be seen, the Civic Congress traditionally stands “for all good and against all bad”. At the same time, it seems party members use guile saying that there is no leader – it is already obvious that its mover and shaker and frontman will be Marc Tcaciuc. The choice is admittedly a good one. Tcaciuc is one of the main intellectuals in Moldovan politics, besides being a former PCRM activist and Advisor to Vladimir Voronin. We can say that he is one of those people who personifies the period of communist rule, much more stable and satisfying than the current one. The nostalgia factor plays a very large role (and, most likely, will play in the future) in the success of the Civic Congress. The new party stands out since it does not use geopolitical slogans. Tcaciuc himself modestly admitted in a recent interview that he isn’t an expert in geopolitics. The Congress focuses on the social agenda, which in the impoverished Moldovan reality seems to be the right decision. Now the party will have to register with the Public Services Agency. It shouldn’t be a problem “if everything is according to the law”. “The days of Plahotniuc are over. No one will block anyone. We should register everyone, we are not afraid of competition,” Igor Dodon said the other day. The main intrigue about the Civic Congress is who is really behind its creation. Unless, of course, we consider it an unexpected exemplary case of self-organization in response to the political and economic chaos in the country. Many experts previously believed (and some still do) it is a project of the Kremlin. Meanwhile, judging by statements of members of the new party, besides obvious attempt of political revenge and demonstration how to do policy correctly, the Civil Congress began to hit purposefully just socialists and Igor Dodon. For example, Marc Tcaciuc has already said that as soon as the party is registered, it will advocate off-year parliamentary elections. In his opinion, what is happening now in Parliament is unacceptable and the situation must change. The desire of some Congress members for political revenge is also fueling anti-socialist sentiment. For example, Anastasie Pavlov, who once held the post of Chairman of the Dondușeni district, recalled during the founding congress that he was a member of the PCRM, and a lot of good things were done from 2003 to 2009, and zero after 2015. “Honest and good people were expelled, and those who were always promoted betrayed the party,” he hinted at Igor Dodon not subtly at all. So far, the new movement has no political partners. However, Tcaciuc has already paid a lot of compliments to PAS leader Maia Sandu and even invited the former Prime Minister to meet in person. In general, given that the public presentation of the party took place in the context of the Moldova’s deoligarchization campaign this summer, we can assume that the Civic Congress is either a clever tool of Plahotniuc, or, more likely, a subsidiary project of the Europeans. The logic is simple: the Congress will dissolve the socialist electorate on the left and attract the votes much-needed by ACUM and Dodon, and in the future may become part of a new project of “authorities of national accord”, such as the coalition of ACUM and the Party of Socialists. Hence the Congress’ attempts to cooperate with Maia Sandu, who at this stage seems to be the only candidate to unite the right-wing electorate under the same roof. In any case, it is premature to draw firm conclusions. One thing is obvious – the political year 2020 in Moldova, like all the previous ones, will not be boring and predictable.