Opinion: “PAS Carried Out Nationwide Intimidation of the Population”

Public opinion polls point to a mood of anxiety, fear, and hopelessness prevailing in the country, resulted from deliberate manipulation by the ruling regime

Cristian RUSSU, RTA: The results of a public opinion survey conducted by the IMAS polling agency in November were published recently. They provide the first insights into post-electoral public sentiment in Moldova. These data are of particular interest for understanding the motivations that guided citizens during the recent parliamentary elections. Experts had previously suggested that the authorities deliberately plunged society into a state of heightened anxiety and fear in order to secure votes. The survey results fully confirm this version: 86% of respondents said they voted “so that the war would not come to Moldova”, while only 55% cast their ballots “in favor of continuing Moldova’s movement toward the EU”. This clearly shows that relying solely on the slogan of a “monopoly on European integration” would not have been enough for the ruling party to achieve its current result, especially given that public opinion polls conducted in December last year indicated that 95% of respondents supported Maia Sandu, believing in her exclusive role in this process. It is obvious that the authorities were regularly conducting closed sociological surveys. And, as we recall, the escalation of the “external threat” narrative began after a fairly innocuous series of routine handouts, which the opposition and observers assessed as manifestations of electoral corruption: one-off payments to socially vulnerable groups, promises of generous investment in the economy and the social sector under the so-called “Budget+”, which no one even mentions today. Apparently, by late spring these public sentiment readings demonstrated that such measures were insufficient. As a result, the flywheel of the military threat was set in motion. Despite the hysteria subsiding after the parliamentary elections, the high level of public anxiety has not gone away. The greatest fear among Moldovan citizens remains war: 54.2% of respondents cited it as their main concern. This figure is especially telling given that for another 16% of those surveyed, the worst possible scenario would be famine. By comparison, in EU countries the dominant fears are the economy and migration. In Russia, people are also primarily worried about socio-economic problems. In Moldova, however, these concerns were effectively pushed aside during the election campaign. All debates unfolded in an atmosphere of escalating tension, enemy-hunting, and accusations, including against PAS opponents, of “appeasing the aggressor”. Moderators on our “independent” media outlets actively sustained this high-pressure tone, which is easily achieved when geopolitical issues are placed at the center of discussion. The real needs of the population were plainly ignored. At the beginning of the year, opinion polls proved that citizens expected the authorities to deliver change precisely in addressing socio-economic problems: 28.4% wanted lower prices, 25% called for higher wages and pensions. In third place, with 23%, was a demand for a change in the country’s political leadership. The desire for peace or the avoidance of war ranked only sixth, at 6.8%. In other words, at the start of the year society demonstrated a strong demand for improved living conditions amid high prices and low incomes, while fear of war remained minimal. However, instead of attempting to meet the aspirations of the population, as any responsible government should, the authorities opted for deception and intimidation on a nationwide scale. To make people temporarily forget their pressing everyday problems, they were subjected to a kind of collective “therapy session”, pushed toward the polls under the fear of a calamity deemed more terrifying than material hardship. This method of manipulation proves far more effective than coercing an “emotional purchase”. Incidentally, speaking of purchases: for 60-80% of respondents, now is clearly not the time to buy real estate, vehicles, start a business, or make any other major investments. All of this bears the hallmarks of a captured state in which people want simple, understandable things, yet are deprived even of the right to desire them, as something else is imposed instead: the threat of war and a European agenda presented as an illusion of salvation, from which the authorities can profit and through which they can preserve their position. What follows is a tightening of restrictions and the elimination of competition at the level of ideas. And this will not be the routine, regime-typical clearing of the electoral field or the neutralization of individual rivals during elections, but the imposition of taboos on the most elementary matters. We are being forced to accept this, to abandon the struggle for our rights. It is therefore unsurprising that a sense of despair is taking hold among the population, manifesting itself in a further decline in the ratings of opposition parties. Society has simply lost faith in the existence of a genuine opposition and in its ability to defend the real interests of citizens, seeing no alternative to the current authorities. This is partly due to the persistence of a certain illusion of progress along the path of European integration. 30% of respondents believe the authorities’ promise to bring Moldova into the EU by 2028, while an even larger share, 40% trusts the revised, post-election version pointing to 2030. At the same time, 48% of those surveyed are prepared to accept EU membership even under conditions of limited national rights, not viewing the loss of sovereignty as a serious problem. It is equally troubling that Moldovan society is becoming accustomed to the authorities’ repressive policies. Unfortunately, it is increasingly seen as normal to exclude someone from an electoral campaign or to impose sanctions. Thus, when asked about their attitude toward the exclusion of parties and blocs from the parliamentary race, respondents’ opinions were split almost evenly between support and rejection. In other words, between 30 and 40 percent indirectly endorse violations of the electoral rights of political parties. At the same time, citizens reacted critically to the restriction of voting rights for Moldovan citizens from the left bank of the Dniester, which was identified as the most serious violation in these elections. Citizens’ peaceful mindset, one of our greatest assets, has become one of the primary targets for transformation. At the beginning of the year, 77% of respondents stated that they would vote in a referendum to preserve neutrality. Such unanimity can scarcely be found anywhere else, except in the desire to live in friendship with all surrounding countries. Only 1% of respondents expressed a wish for military assistance from external development partners. The areas where foreign support was most expected were healthcare, agriculture, economic development, and education. Does the current course of the ruling party correspond to these, one might say, national priorities of the population? Given the constant statements by officials questioning the value of neutrality, calling for militarization, and emphasizing the readiness of external partners to “help” us in this regard, hardly so. The authorities intimidate the population with the prospect of war while promoting the mythical slogan of imminent European integration, thereby forcing people to vote for them and simultaneously eroding trust both in the state and in themselves. Around 55-60% of respondents categorically distrust both the authorities and the media. An even higher anti-rating is recorded only for the justice sector, which the regime has been unsuccessfully attempting to reform for the past five years. With the exception of the Church, people in this country no longer trust any institution. These are clear indicators of the total failure of the project known as “Good Times Moldova”.