Voters betrayal or deliberate move? What Does Moldovan Socialists – Democrats Coalition Mean?

The Party of Socialists and the Democratic Party of Moldova stopped hiding their cooperation initiating official negotiations on formation the ruling coalition. Why namely now such a decision and how will Moscow react to, since it earlier warned the PSRM against cooperation with the Democrats. We’ll find out in the RTA’s expert Sergiu Ceban comment SERGIU CEBAN, RTA: On March 4, the Party of Socialists and the Democratic Party almost simultaneously decided to start negotiations to create of a ruling alliance. According to the leaders of political parties, such an alliance is necessary to ensure political stability in the country and to prevent early parliamentary elections. Igor Dodon publicly endorsed the initiative of the two parties, promising support for any coalition that would be “in the people’s interest.” As the PSRM stated, only a stable management will allow the implementation of social projects necessary for the country and citizens. In their opinion, the basis of the new alliance is important to lay the same political agreement that the socialists and the ACUM bloc previously signed. At the same time, they warned the Democrats and assigned them all responsibility for provoking early parliamentary elections, which is to become real if no agreement reached during coalition bargaining. Following the meeting of the National Council, the leadership of the Democratic Party reported that, despite serious ideological differences with the PSRM, the decision to initiate coalition negotiations was approved. Along with this, Democratic leader Pavel Filip said that PDM will remain a pro-European party under all circumstances, and that the basic conditions for negotiations will be the European path and foreign policy oriented towards the West, good relations with Romania and Ukraine, the country's territorial integrity and state security, and also Romanian language and history. Such a coherent and consistent position is a serious bid to become leadership in the upcoming party alliance. For example, the current technocratic government of Ion Chicu hasn’t completely decided on the country's strategic priorities: either speaking out for friendship with everyone, warmly speaking about potential foreign loans and seemingly continuing the European vector of Moldova, while at the same time doing awkward curtsies towards Russia and getting into unpleasant scandalous stories. Based on the public conditions of Democrats, it is not difficult to conclude which particular ministries the PDM is interested in: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration, the post of Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration, the Ministry of Defense, and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research. Nevertheless, while this is just a starting position, therefore, following the results of negotiations, the party redistribution of departments may be somewhat different. Such an evident events development and the fast coalition consolidation on paper, force most experts ask only one question: Why such a rush to push the former latent union of socialists and democrats out of the shadows. The formal reason justifying the alliance of socialists with their yesterday’s rivals is the reference to their failing state in the ranks of the Democratic Party, which in the foreseeable future may lead to the loss of the necessary number of votes ensuring the functionality of the current government. The migration of Democratic deputies to the breakaway “Candu group” creates a real opportunity to form a coalition with the ACUM bloc with the subsequent removal of the Socialist Party from power and minimizing the likelihood of re-election of Igor Dodon for the second presidential term. However, it is important to understand that the process of balance redistribution the of democrats by means of “hiving off” and further fixing on basic country’s political flanks field bears all the signs of programming. And this means that the full return to power in the country of the group of democrats who have quickly cleared themselves of "filthiness" through their official coalition with the PSRM, due to some allegedly complex and even extraordinary circumstances for socialists, is part of this program. The socialist’s co-authors of this project have already begun to “sweeten the pill”, telling their voters and external partners, primarily Moscow, interesting stories about the “stabilization” of the country and the need to avoid additional risks in connection with the holding of early parliamentary elections. Surely they recall the recent anti-government protest of war veterans on the Dniester, which also unexpectedly easily ended, just as it began. In reality, applying the “pro-European façade layer” to the cabinet with the help of the Democratic Party, Ion Chicu, judging by the intentions of the PDM and PSRM leadership, will help balance the situation in relations with external partners. Especially in Bucharest and Kiev, where Democratic leaders are shaking hands one way or another. It is likely that the new configuration of the government will follow a long-tested path. PDM will undertake to establish dialogue with the West, positioning itself as an important political balancer, which, being integrated into the power system, keeps the country from total Russian influence. Igor Dodon and PSRM will continue to use Russia's financial and political support to maintain their positions in Moldova, interpreting the tactical alliance with the Democrats as a forced pragmatic measure to achieve strategic goals. It looks that Moscow has already made the necessary conclusions. An indicator of the current position of Russia regarding the Moldovan authorities and personally Igor Dodon will be the loan issue. The Russian side will have to further analyze the feasibility of financing the Moldovan government which consists also of representatives of a political party who not only pursued a long-term aggressive anti-Russian policy, but also publicly announced intention to continue in the same vein. The rhetoric of such Moldovan politicians as Renato Usatii and Mark Tcaciuc, who, in addition to the traditional calls for the removal of the current government, almost simultaneously began to articulate the need for early parliamentary elections, is also noteworthy. These signs indicate that the Kremlin is inclined to the need for a full electoral cleansing of the political system of Moldova and the inclusion of new participants.