Maia Sandu’s Speech in Parliament as a Tool of Public Propaganda

Maia Sandu’s speech in Parliament yesterday was not only an informal start to the ruling party’s election campaign, but also an attempt to close its unstable ranks and protect it from the persistent scandals

In spite of the upcoming Easter celebrations, the international life, followed by the political processes in our country, has noticeably revived. It is unlikely that we have any influence on the plans in the big capitals, but there is no doubt that Chisinau is trying to keep ear to the ground. Therefore, we can expect that in the coming weeks, closer the May holidays, the political momentum will not slow down. The main newsbreak of the coming weeks will be the summing up of Donald Trump’s 100 days in office. It is clear that by this conditional date his team is trying to achieve the first significant foreign policy results, especially in ending the hot phase of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Yesterday, delegations from the United States and Ukraine travelled to Paris for this very purpose, in the presence of their European partners to discuss in detail the contours of a future agreement or, in Trump’s terms, a deal. As one might expect, the forces opposing Trump, both inside and outside the US, have only temporarily retreated and are on guard. Therefore, on the eve of the “first hundred meters”, we are likely to see a series of counter-attacks against the current White House administration. The Democratic Party used the indefatigable Joe Biden as a “first blow”, who made his first public appearance after a long silence. The former president harshly criticized Trump, saying that in less than 100 days he and his associates had done damage to the United States never seen before in the country’s history. In addition, he complained about racial injustice in the US, criticized the migration policy, the reduction in the number of civil servants and the creation of risks for millions of Americans who seek help from the state. At the same time, influential groups of the diplomatic corps, which have lost access to state resources but retain extensive connections in Europe and the world, have begun to encourage their partners to collectively oppose the American leadership. In fact, a group of congressmen - formally bipartisan, but in fact both composed of opponents of Trump’s political course and supporting the left-radical agenda - visited Moldova for this purpose this week. As surprising as it may seem to some (although there is little surprising, given the political background of the PAS leaders), one of those who agreed to take a jab at the American leader’s policies at the end of his first run was Maia Sandu. Recently, she went to the Parliament, where in her speech she openly criticized the head of the White House. To enhance the effect and to understand that the Chisinau ruling regime will counteract the current policy of Washington, which sooner or later can be projected on Moldova, the President’s advisers combined all this with a kind of unofficial start of the election campaign for parliamentary elections. Sandu’s pompous speech from the high rostrum was accompanied by a vote of deputies to officially approve the date of 28 September. But first things first. Among the main reasons for Sandu’s dissatisfaction with the current American policy is the plunge of the world trade system into a state of uncertainty and the risk of a large-scale crisis for the global economy. At the same time, the ongoing international changes cause her deep and, presumably, unquenchable anxiety, as her faith in “a just world based on rules and respect” has been seriously shaken. The American embassy is to find out what exactly she wanted to convey to Washington with these phrases, although in our view everything is very clear and targeted. Most of the presidential report was, of course, embedded in the internal political context. The deputies of the Bloc of Communists and Socialists, by the way, had left the meeting room before Sandu came to the podium in order to reduce its status to a “private event”. To enhance the effect, the opposition carefully hung posters with inscriptions “Sandu is not our president!”, “Sandu is the queen of criminals”, “Sandu is the president of war”. The mesage of the head of state’s speech was mainly limited to the progress made by Moldova in the European integration process and the positive image of the country, which is created by the support for Ukraine. The “white whale” is the same - accelerated accession to the European Union. Meanwhile, the speech was full of propaganda and geopolitical clichés, which, in fact, replace concrete measures to overcome the crisis that is gradually affecting almost all spheres of the state. Ms Sandu’s arrival in parliament was a signal for the political mobilization of MPs and the entire PAS activists on the eve of the parliamentary elections. In fact, the president gave an informal start to the electoral race and identified the key topics around which the ruling party’s future strategy will be built. Compared to what the opposition has done over the past few months, it is safe to say that the PAS has surpassed all alternative forces in terms of formulating an electoral agenda. However, the authorities’ electoral prologue is taking place amid a series of painful scandals. The most high-profile of them are the amnesty of dangerous recidivists and the revelations of the former head of the anticorruption prosecutor’s office. These high-profile episodes have become one of the most severe stresses for PAS over the past few years, as a result of which the political formation is once again on the verge of an internal split. On top of this, at the beginning of the week, a respected sociological service published the results of another opinion poll. They reveal deep social discontent, economic and institutional crises, as well as failures in all key areas on which the PAS election programme for 2021 was based - economy (“good times”), justice (justice reform), energy (energy independence at low tariffs). Apparently, the set of circumstances pushed the political consultants of the ruling party to such a form of public propaganda. It seems that the authorities expect to strengthen their positions by means of another propaganda decoy to the voters oriented towards the European choice. Moreover, Maia Sandu unashamedly declares that PAS has no alternatives in the field of European integration. The amplified intensity of the opposition propaganda, as well as the appearance of Andrei Spinu on the airwaves with undisguised divisive narratives, became another motive for Sandu’s speech in the parliament. The mutual exchange of loyalty that took place there, according to the authors’ idea, should probably strengthen the unity of the party and encourage the rival groups to a temporary truce on the eve of the decisive electoral battle. As a result, however, only Olesea Stamate suffered, as she was ostentatiously expelled from the PAS. Thus, the ruling party and its (un)formal leader have clearly outlined the framework of its foreign and domestic policy priorities, which will be the guide to action for the next six months. The elections will show the accuracy of such strategy.