Two Lost Years for Moldova

Yesterday, PAS crossed the equator of its rule. The “successes” during this term were presented by the speaker and the prime minister simply to prove that in the past two years Moldova has only approached the edge

Semyon Albu, RTA: So, our government has reached the middle of its inglorious reign. On this occasion, Igor Grosu, the chairman of the ruling party and simultaneously the parliament’s speaker, together with prime minister Dorin Recean reported on the “successes” achieved. The head of PAS, while not failing to say that in two years it is impossible to make up for 30 years of lost time, nevertheless voiced the opinion that “important things” had been started. Of course, his speech was full of stamps about the fact that we are moving at all speeds to the European Union, and the evil Kremlin is hindering us in every possible way, but all that had only made us more “united”. Well, this is all about emotions. As for the real achievements, the speaker mentioned the EU candidate status, the justice reform, including the ban of the SOR party, the “return of the Chisinau airport to citizens” and the Romanian language, the withdrawal from the CIS. Well, “achievements” are as good as authorities. I will briefly go through each point. The notorious candidacy is not a merit of PAS, but simply a consequence of a unique historical moment connected with the war in Ukraine. Let me remind you that before the war, PAS did not do well with European integration, except for beautiful and meaningless words at various meetings and briefings. Moreover, even the newly acquired status, in fact, has not brought the country any closer to real accession to the European Union, which is still many years and even decades away. It is simply ridiculous to talk about the reform of justice - this task was beyond the PAS’s capabilities, which it miserably fails. In the West, they can clearly see how the justice system and the struggle against corruption are actually “improving”, i.e. not at all. Treasury theft and bribery flourish, and the so-called “reform” has been reduced to the re-subordination of all key bodies of justice to the ruling party, which now act in its interests. Banning a political party is not something that a politician in a democratic country should be proud of. The more so that the ineffective PAS, as always, could not do it within the framework of the law and resorted to Plahotniuc’s experience, using the pocket Constitutional Court. In general, for the current government, the practices of the former autocratic oligarch have become practically a handbook - and they are not only carefully reproduced, but also expanded into other fields. “The return of the airport” is complete nonsense. Before the PAS, our airport functioned normally and developed as an international hub. What we have now - the state airline is bankrupt, major figures have left, the passenger flow is reoriented to Iasi, while we have constant delays and cancellations of flights. At the same time, there is talk of a new concession - so what kind of return to citizens is this? What’s the purpose of these blatant lies? I am not going to comment on the refusal to abandon own language, and even in violation of all sorts of legislation – enough has been said on this subject. As has been said about withdrawal from the CIS, which has already resulted in a tragedy at the same airport in the capital. Meanwhile, Dorin Recean also boasted about a few figures and also lied along the way - well, they can’t live without lies. For instance, he spoke about the energy crisis, which was caused by Russia’s attack on Ukraine. And at the same time, he forgot that our country’s gas problems started back in the autumn of 2021, when someone had left the issue of extending the contract with Gazprom on its own, while rushing to challenge Moscow. Recean also announced a 15% increase in salaries and indexation of pensions, although the latter was done in defiance of the current legislation below the inflation rate. In fact, lawlessness has become the norm during the PAS’s rule. Now it is possible in our country to falsify the results of contests for the most important government positions, to establish dictate in the media space and at the snap of fingers to shut down unwanted media resources, to cancel election results and remove favorites from the race, to illegally ban parties, to forcibly disperse peaceful protests. Immunity from justice for all “good people” is almost legalized, since they are a priori considered “impeccable” by the regime and can implement corruption schemes on an unprecedented scale. The foreign policy, which goes against the national interests, has acquired a completely speculative nature. Moldova is almost a full-fledged participant in the current geopolitical conflict, despite its constitutional neutrality, and it bears great costs losing markets and spending a lot of money on the defense sector in the conditions of acute economic crisis. Contacts with the east are being cut off, especially with Russia, which often brings great damage to the country. The economic situation, as I said, is terrible. Its real sector is shrinking day by day, the budget is increasingly dependent on external injections, as a result the external debt has increased one and a half times in just two years. And the billions of euros received from the EU are not converted into anything, but “eaten” and plundered, while the repayments are a heavy burden on the budget. During the entire reign of PAS, which, I remind you, has all the levers of power in its hands, and which rules in a regime of endless state of emergency, nothing serious has been done to somehow fix the situation and give a boost to the economy. On the contrary, right now the key agricultural sector dies, but the authorities cannot produce any solutions apart from meagre handouts. Recently the government came up with a 20-point plan on how to “build a European Moldova”, but everyone understands that this is simply a document for the elections, which will be forgotten just like the PAS’s 2021 electoral program. In general, during these years the government has shown only its ability to ruin. Maia Sandu and Co. have become a kind of Moldovan Midas, turning everything they touch into a failure, a catastrophe and a split society. Was it necessary and important to ban the St. George ribbon or Victory Day, against the opinion of the majority in society? But it was done in the most stupid and insolent way, as if even defying people and common sense. These past two years are best assessed by our population, which, against the backdrop of such ‘changes’, is voting with its feet and massively leaving the country. During this period, about 100 thousand of our fellow citizens left the country. In general, Moldova's depopulation has gained alarming pace. Meanwhile, all the polls show a sagging of the party’s ratings, with the decline rate varying only depending on the bias of sociologists. The level of social pessimism is unprecedented, the majority of the population is dissatisfied with the state of affairs in the country and where we are drifting. These are the real results of your and your colleagues’ job, Mr. Grosu. It is symbolic that the speaker left on a visit to the United States immediately after the report. Ultimately, there, in Western capitals, reside people in whose interests the current government is working. And that is why, unfortunately, current authorities will continue to feel at ease in our country for a long time. And even the elections are not likely to bring this occupation administration down – under a dictatorship, rigging the vote is not a difficult task, especially when the Western curators are willing to turn a blind eye.