A Striking Resemblance of Elections on the Two Banks of the Prut

Christian RUSSU

The electoral campaign in Romania follows the same path as in Moldova: the search for the omnipresent “hand of Moscow” and the elimination of undesirable candidates with the help of puppet state institutions. Amid failures in domestic politics and growing desovereignization, the ruling elites on both banks of the Prut are shamelessly exploiting authoritarian methods typical of kleptocratic regimes to retain power

I’ll be frank – the current election campaign in our country garners almost no interest. We are less than two weeks away from voting, and I see no reason to follow the election race. There are neither interesting programmes and fresh slogans, nor a bright political struggle between the candidates. The impression is that at the finish line everyone is exhausted: both the voters and the contestants. The variegated candidates from the opposition cannot move from criticism of the current head of state to ideas and proposals about the future of the country, capable of attracting the electorate. And listening to endless monologues about the same thing on TV is just boring. At the same time in commercials, Maia Sandu, with swollen eyes that cannot be hidden by any means, tells us about some values of the European community, which were ruined in the most cynical manner under her rule. What protection of national identity and language in the European Union does she tell the inhabitants of Moldova about? What does it promise to us, Moldovans, whose identity was sent to the dustbin of history with applause, and the mention of our own language was shamefully erased from the Constitution and all laws? One may be happy for the Romanian language and culture without joining the EU. What sovereign achievements does the government have besides promoting the European agenda? Where are the successes in the economy and trade, where is the reduction of the external credit burden and the opening of new markets? Instead of the spice and intrigue of a genuine competition in the electoral menu, we are offered only threats and outright lies. It goes without saying that the ruling regime has succeeded the most in this. We are intimidated by fines and prison for working for opposition candidates, threatened with prosecution for alternative views on the country’s foreign policy future, deceived that they will not sell our lands, although they have already given away almost all the valuable assets of the republic. It is clear that such a campaign makes it inevitable that candidates will be withdrawn, and before that juicy revelations to be revealed. The current government has already deprived a number of opposition politicians of the opportunity to run for office through the controlled CEC. There is the same narrative - cooperation with Russia, which the mass media continue to turn into the main enemy in a rather clumsy manner. Judging by the latest signs, a group withdrawal from the race on the eve of the vote on charges of ties to the Kremlin is not ruled out. Ironically, one can observe similar processes in terms of meaning and dynamics in a neighboring country, a member state of the European community, with much greater achievements in European integration. The elections are less than two months away, and the rhetoric of the pro-government media and the methods of political struggle are identical. The ruling coalition led by the Social Democratic Party of President Klaus Iohannis and Marcel Ciolacu has no achievements. Entering the Schengen zone through the back door for Romanian citizens was another humiliation. The authorities lied about the opening of a visa-free regime with the US. The EU once again demonstrated its attitude to Bucharest’s role and place in the European hierarchy by granting a secondary position in the new composition of the European Commission. Although the Romanian leadership was expecting a chair of one of the important European commissioners, for example, for economy. President Iohannis was strongly discouraged from continuing to fight for the post of NATO Secretary General, and the hard-won Patriot air defense battery was taken away from the Romanians without any compensation. Instead, they told him to use a $12 billion loan to build up the military industry to continue the war in Ukraine. No one has ever seen the promised sovereignty in decision-making on the external perimeter. On the contrary, outbursts of pinched national consciousness are becoming increasingly active in the expert and political environment beyond the Prut, and the same fatigue is observed among voters as in ours. And now the active phase of the elections in Romania has started, and one of the main topics is the same ubiquitous “hand of Moscow”. First, a discrediting campaign about alleged links with Russia was launched against former NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana. The reason was his unofficial visit to Russia in 2009 as a candidate of the Social Democratic Party. Fifteen years later, former associates exploited it to accuse him, just as Traian Basescu did in his time. Attempts to explain the utter absurdity of such accusations seem doomed to failure. The Romanian media has unequivocally stigmatized the former deputy secretary general of the North Atlantic Alliance as “Russian agent”. Another “sensation” occurred the other day - the exclusion from the race of the odious and scandalous Diana Shoshoaca from the SOS-Romania party. At first, the Romanian Central Election Commission refused to register the MEP, but after the second attempt, the Constitutional Court got involved. The high judges considered Shoshoaca a threat to national security because of his visit to the Russian embassy in Bucharest on a public holiday. No one in the neighboring country doubts the political nature of the court’s decision. Four out of five CC judges, who were appointed by the ruling Social Democratic Party, voted in favor of her withdrawal. Already after the scandalous decision, the PSD naively demanded that the judges “promptly explain the reasons for the verdict”, which in such an extraordinary situation for democratic Romania “must be weighty”. And here comes the storm. Romanian national liberals announced the breakdown of the coalition agreement with the Social Democrats, accusing the latter of usurping power. On the one hand, NLP candidate Nicolae Ciuca continued to stigmatize Diana Shoshoaca for her ties to the Kremlin, and on the other hand, he intimidated voters with the threat of a return to the authoritarian past if PSD remained in power. At the same time, the liberal ministers do not intend to leave the coalition government of Marcel Ciolacu in order to prevent the country from sliding towards authoritarianism. In addition to Shoshoaca, the Romanian electoral commission has banned nine other candidates, including pacifists such as Razvan Constantinescu of the Romanian People’s Patriots Party. Noteworthy, not only potential leaders of the race are using the Russian factor in the election campaign. Candidate Elena Laskoni of the Save Romania Union (USR) said that if elected, she would nominate anyone but pro-Russian politicians for prime minister, and called the ruling PSD followers of the Communists. Lasconi’s remarks came in response to a courtesy from Marcel Ciolacu, who would favor a woman out of all other candidates. Another prominent politician and presidential candidate from the AUR party, George Simion, is accused of ties with the Kremlin not only in Romania. The ruling regime in Moldova refused to lift Simion’s persona non grata status for the same reasons last year, leaving him banned from entering the country until 2028. However, after the removal of Shoshoaca from the elections, Simion has a chance of making it to the second round of elections, which both Marcel Ciolacu and his opponent Nicolae Ciuca are interested in. It is preferable for both to face radical George Simion in the next round rather than fight each other. As the election campaigns on both banks of the Prut show, the Russian factor is used by the political elites as the only working tool capable of cheering up the electorate. At the same time, no one is interested in Russia’s actual participation in these processes. And there is no doubt that the image of the enemy represented the Russian Federation will continue to be exploited in the internal political struggle regardless of the development of events and changes in the geopolitical picture of the world.