Opinion: "The Total Political Populism Hinders Moldova’s Development"

Semion ALBU Various initiatives the get promoted on both sides of the Moldovan political spectrum are populist and pose risks to the country's economic development As the political whirlwind around the government (non)appointing and the subsequent Constitutional Court’s decision ended, it became more or less clear that we are once again to face the next "fateful elections". Yet for the third year, Moldova has been living from one election campaign to another, remaining unable to get out of this endless electoral samsara wheel. Against this background, other issues fade into the background whilst all state institutions find themselves involved in an ongoing political confrontation with no end in sight. It is easy understandable, all this has a bad effect on the Moldovan political system’s stability, and an even worst one on its development prospects. The country is literally "being stormed". There are enough of examples of how republic’s interests suffer from power battles. It is enough just calculating the amount of money Moldova missed because of the ongoing "turmoil" only last year. The two hundred million Russian loan, that was planned to be spent on infrastructure projects and budget support, got blocked for (geo) political reasons. More than half a billion program that International Monetary Fund was to provide and a hundred million dollars macro-financial assistance from the European Union – all these failed due to Moldova not fulfilling its obligations. Easy to recall the 60 million euros missed grant support from Romania. The weak Moldovan economy did not look brilliant even when being externally supported. Without it, in the context of the ongoing pandemic, it does cause extreme concern for almost all experts. Nevertheless, the proximity of a new electoral cycle - early parliamentary elections - will again activate the most primitive and harmful political populism, regardless of the dire financial situation. Taking into account the measures already announced, one gets the impression that all Moldovan politicians have decided to act according to the well-known principle (to slightly rephrase it): “after the elections, the deluge”. Anyway, the pre-election campaign has not even yet officially started – more to come! Let’s take, for example, the situation with the stolen billion. This month, the parliament voted again to repeal the law that in simple terms placed the stolen money compensation (from three Moldovan banks) on citizens’ shoulders. It seems a good initiative but there are three things at once that hinder it. The first one is the bill which was approved by the PSRM-SHOR link. In its current form, it does not particularly solve the problem but even vice versa worsens the state of the country's financial system. The second one is the creditors of our country who will clearly not like it, especially the IMF, which has more than once clearly expressed itself on this issue. And the third one is the fact that the expert court recognized unconstitutional the previous December attempt to repeal the billion law - and there is no doubt that a similar fate is awaiting the next "try". Or, here's the bill that the socialists promoted on covering the cost of electricity for all household consumers during the emergency. Again, this is a good measure but where can we find more than half a billion lei to implement it? That’s the way authors of the idea answer this question: “Once again, we want to note that the PSRM faction has been very attentively studying the state budget for a month now. And the socialists are repelled by the idea to provide state organizations and structures with some opportunity to make savings in terms of capital investments, which are scheduled for 2021. " That is, finances will be removed from infrastructure renewal projects. This is hardly the best solution in terms of republic’s future. In addition, one cannot fail to note that during the last emergency, no one gave such gifts. Well, you do probably understand why. Exactly the same applies to another "social" initiative on pensions indexation. The project envisages holding it twice a year - in April and October but with a new mechanism. “Thus, this year, pensioners and recipients of social benefits in general will have 7.1% indexation until 2021 and one thousand lei as a lump sum Easter payment, which will be provided to the mentioned categories of citizens with an income of up to four thousand lei,” socialist MP, Vladimir Odnostalco explains. And this is another minus 700 million lei from the budget. At the same time, Vlad Batrancea noted that the project is “a response to social challenges associated with the pandemic crisis” and “a protection for pensioners”. It is a pity that the desire to provide such protection usually arises only during the pre-election season. Opposition parties talk a lot about the blatant populism that can literally be seen from everywhere. For example, the chairman of the Democratic Party Pavel Filip said that "there smells of populism every day in the parliament." "The parties compete in all kinds of proposals, which, they hope, will bring them at least 2-3 additional points in the rating," the politician wrote on his Facebook page. However, Filip himself knows firsthand about pre-election populism. It was his government to serve the PDM electoral campaign during Vlad Plahotniuc’s time in 2018-2019, when implementing programs like “Good Roads for Moldova”, “Doctor for You”, “First House”, etc. They were replaced by the already populist PSRM projects for presidential elections, but the pandemic thwarted Dodon's plans to turn the country into a "big construction site". There were hopes that the new head of state would break this sad trend and would propose a more modern approach. Unfortunately, this is not yet happening. The cheapest form of populism is to be named the PR campaign (sneaked from Volodymyr Zelensky) of Maia Sandu’s staged trip to the supermarket. This did not bring any dividends to the Ukrainian leader, why should such primitive formats spoil the image of the head of the republic - it is not clear. However, this is of course, a trifle against the background of some other president’s steps. Thus, her attempts to ban the export of grain from Moldova cause bewilderment. The situation in this area is rather complicated but Maia Sandu just wanted to solve the issue and made an undeliberated decision, without thinking it through, even if suspecting there were possible damage for exporters, who have not yet recovered from last year's monstrous drought. To keep up with opponents, Sandu did not pass by such a politically fertile topic as tariffs. So, she sent to parliament a bill providing for a decrease in gas rates for the population. The project has already displeased Moldovagaz: according to the company, its implementation might negatively affect the country's energy security. There are still many such examples on both sides. The opposing political forces are reaching the same level, since all they do is looking for topics at their own interest just to hype up, to impress the voters and gain more points. Strategic thinking, attempts to make decisions for the future or considering all possible consequences are simply absent as a class. We live in a “one-day politics” regime, where the only thing that matters is the current moment and the percentage of voters that can be won over. The whole country’s life is focused on the logic of a political struggle. Statements are worthless, laws are worthless. The country needs no elections, it needs large-scale constitutional reforms and a complete political elite renewal. Otherwise, it is yet now time to say goodbye to its development prospects.