Expert: Socialists and Democrats Did a Political “Coming Out”

Dorin MOCANU The open meeting that leadership of PSRM and PDM held with the participation of President and the Head of the Cabinet is a de facto recognition of close cooperation between the two political forces. It was followed by the split from the Democrats of six deputies led by Candu. The meeting of Moldovan Socialists’ and the Democrats’ leadership held on February 17 in the building of the Moldovan parliament with the participation of President Igor Dodon and Prime Minister Ion Chicu became one of the top events in domestic political life in the country. It immediately gave rise to a variety of hypotheses regarding the reasons for such vivid demonstrativeness and the wander of what’s the need of such a public coordination display between the two already rumored parties. According to the head of state, the main topics at the meeting were first, the activities of parliament and government and second the launch of vast medium and long-term projects. The participants also discussed the general work program of the main legislative and executive bodies. According to Igor Dodon, the support of the current Cabinet from PDM and PSRM is based on a social platform which combines the basic priorities of country's residents. In this regard, the leadership of both parties voiced their expectations from the government team and agreed with Ion Chicu to periodically evaluate the work in the main areas. Such a demonstration was considered by the journalistic community of the Republic as a definite announcement of the future coalition between two political forces which decided to show transparency (unprecedented before that) in terms of coordinating their actions along the governmental and parliamentary lines. Nevertheless, party leaders hastened to refute such interpretations saying that at the current stage the creation of any formal coalition is not on the agenda - with the exception of regular reconciliation of positions on priority issues related to the management of the state system. Experts are far from a common opinion as to why namely now the socialists and democrats took such a deliberately shocking step that is possible to harm everyone. By everyone are intended both: Igor Dodon, who is perceived in Moscow as the main fighter with the oligarchs and anti-Russian forces in Moldova and the Democrats who, according to their statutes and doctrinal views are an absolutely pro-Western party and theoretically should seek common ground with similar-minded political forces. As usual, such an accented political gesture could be the result of numerous factors that pushed the Democrats to a closer relationship with PSRM and Igor Dodon. As you know, Western capitals are full of desire to reformat the current power structure in Moldova and strengthen the position of political forces loyal to Washington and Brussels. In this sense, the initiatives addressed to the Democratic Parties by representatives of the ACUM bloc with the proposal to sign joint political declarations look quite justified, however do not fully satisfy the interests of the Democrats themselves that are more complicated and complex than the manifestation of loyalty to the country's pro-European course. According to most analysts, the internal state of the Democratic Party now leaves much to be desired. The loss of political unity in June, last year led to centrifugal processes on the part of internal interest groups and to an actual split. For this reason, on February 15, the political council, headed by Pavel Filip, was forced to appoint almost all the leaders of informal internal groups to the post of vice-chairmen. This was supposed to somehow balance the negative latent processes and, in this way enter into an open dialogue with the PSRM and Igor Dodon who most likely, was ready to satisfy the interests of each of these groups. However, even such measures did not help to completely neutralize disintegration tendencies as a result of which six deputies led by Andrian Candu split away from the PDM today. Despite this, there is a reason to believe that the Democratic Party of Moldova, with all its difficult internal processes is now at the peak of its “post-Plahotniuc” political history. In this context, the choice in favor of Igor Dodon is quite obvious, since it is him who is ready to offer concrete tangible things, patronage and financial sources. In contrast to the ACUM bloc which needs PDM exclusively for utilitarian purposes: to remove the Chicu government, to ensure Maia Sandu’s victory in the presidential election and to announce the early parliamentary elections which are likely to leave the Democrats outside the political system. It seems that in the very near future we’ll witness the next manifestations of mutual loyalty and integration management on the part of PSRM and PDM especially taking into account the cleansing of the latter from most active "fronts". The most obvious reason is the report on the activities of the government for 100 days which will be submitted to parliament in the coming future. The leaders of the Democratic Party have already announced a flurry of criticism in the media regarding the Cabinet and in particular, regarding specific ministers who cannot cope with the tasks assigned to them. In this regard, staffing decisions may be expected and accordingly, the appearance of officials in the government delegated by the Democratic Party.