Opinion: “Unionists Are to Be Used to Overthrow Dodon in 2020”

Moldovan authorities turn a blind eye on the unionists’ forces unification under the banners of a single movement Dorin Mocanu, RTA One of the intriguing storylines of the latter Moldovan socio-political life is the consolidation of the so called “unire” supporters – the unification of Moldova and Romaine. This process continued consistently almost the whole half of the 2019 year and one of its main characters has become the head of the Liberal Party Dorin Chirtoaca, who also acted as the all-unionist association media skipper. As common in the Moldovan policy, the unification process proceeded extremely hard. But the huge unsuccessful parliament and local elections boosted the integrational unionistic course which occurred just when the number of supporters for the unification with Romaine in the Moldovan society increased. The political forces who lobbied for Moldova’s integration into Romaine stated about their efforts consolidation on December 31, and have recently signed the according official document. Five parties joined the newly formed and simply named “Unirea” course: the Liberal Party, Save Bessarabia Union, National Liberal Party, Home Democracy Party, and Romanian Popular Party. A joint party statement emphasizes that this step is connected to the “increasing threatening the Russian influence on the Republic of Moldova wide spreading by means of a social and ethnic split-up of the society, information space and strategic facilities occupation, and carrying federalization attempts. That is why, the unionists consider “the only chance” to join the EU and NATO is the return of Moldova to Romania”. It is typically, that far not everybody shared the word Chirtoaca spread – thus, the National Unity Party of Octavian Țîcu refused to join the unitary block. The Napoleonic plans to “liberate from the Russian occupation” hide, of course much earthlier reasons. Firstly, is the wish to revenge for previous failures and to come all armed with non-theoretical prospective to the presidential and early parliamentary elections. Secondly, the block intends to ride on the emerged unionist wave. Over the past years the quantity of unification supporters went up to three times reaching a third of country’s population. However, the small and isolated unionist parties are not able to put altogether the given electoral segment on their own due to the lack of needed resources and the least attraction for the Moldovan population. That’s why the unitary block, even if consisting of no big deal parties may count on making it into the power institutions as a result of different types of elections and financial resources accumulation from the neighboring Romaine. The domestic political environment in the country also plays in favor of the newborn movement. A shift in balance of forces towards Igor Dodon and the PSRM will undoubtedly meet the response of the USA, EU and Romania, who will do everything to ensure that the socialists do not stay long in power.  In this regard, unionists who are few in number but who have gathered the most radical youthunder their banners can be a helpful ally, especially if the battle for the Republic of Moldova’s fate moves from polling stations to the streets. If the western players’ goals are quite clear, then the inaction of the country’s leadership seems less explicable at first glance. Both Dodon, who at every turnemphasizes his status as a “statesman” and the unire’s opponent, and the socialist leaders are actually turning a blind eye on a new surge of unionism and the “Unirea” movement formation, with its charter expressly declaring the goal to eliminate the Moldovan statehood. It was until recently, however, that the president himself called for a legislative ban toregister such political forces. The current administration has apparently decided to use the Unire issue for its election purposes. Indeed, the caricature unionists in many respects seem to be a convenient “scarecrow” for the population, and their possible cohesion with the right forces will give additional arguments to Dodon in the confrontation with Maia Sandu (or any other right-wing candidate). At the same time, the previous decades’ regional experience indicates the failure of authorities' attempts to play the nationalist card in the elections. For example, it turned against Vladimir Voron in in 2009 when unionists became the main driving force of mass riots in Chisinau triggering the Communists’ fall. There is a more recent example of the neighboring Ukraine, where nationalists from the Freedom Party, cultivated by Yanukovych for elections, ended up at the forefront of the Maidan outrages. Igor Dodon seems to believe that he can play this game better than his predecessors. But it is more likely that with his inaction he is right now planting a time bomb under both the PSRM being in power and the prospects to be re-elected for a second term.