Conferences

On Sunday, October 21st 2018, from 11.00 a.m., in the NTB Small Hall, shall hold the conference Why parliamentary elections in the Republic of Moldova at the beginning of next year are important for Romania?

About the Conference

27 years after its independence, the Republic of Moldova is, probably, at the lowest point of its existence. At least one third of the population has lost its faith that it can build a worthy future at home and has left the country, whereas the people left behind are overwhelmed by a feeling of profound despair. The corruption and bad governance are the main causes of the delicate situation to which the Republic Moldova has arrived. In order to distract attention from the committed abuses, the political parties have intensely exploited the splits from society, the latter being deeply divided between the ones who are ready to give up democracy, associating it with governments which have caused corruption, poverty and misery, hoping that the Eastern, authoritarian model might deliver them from misery and the ones wanting to live in a free country, according to the Western model.

The weakening of the state institutions through their capturing by the oligarchic government, the undermining of the democratic process, including through the cancellation of the local elections from Kishinev and the modification of the electoral system in the favour of the socialist party and to the detriment of the pro-European opposition parties, the lack of any popular support for the ruling party, but which wants to keep power at any cost represent major hazards for ensuring free and correct elections and, respectively, for their result.

The maintenance of power by the Plahotniuc-Dodonregime in the existing form or under any other form shall bring about change, at least medium-term, of the structure of voters in favour of the ones voting for parties close to the Kremlin regime. The demographic situation, the massive migration of the pro-European segment and the scepticism of the government to create conditions for the diaspora’s participation in the vote shall deprive the Republic of Moldova of the critical mass of pro-democracy voters.

It suits the current government to keep the Republic of Moldova in a grey area, where the regime representatives dictate the rules of the game, extract economic annuities from illegal business, without being held accountable, remain in power through less democratic methods. The recent initiatives of the Parliament of Kishinev support the suspicions that the government has undertaken the creation of an off-shore area on the territory of the Republic of Moldova. Likewise, the increasingly frequent discussions about Russia’s plans for the federalization of the Republic of Moldova are worrying, which does not mean anything else but the „Transnistrialisation“ of the country, which shall bring Russia to the border with Romania.

What can Romania do for the Republic of Moldova not to lose the last fight for democracy? We shall look for answers together.

About Maia Sandu

Economist, more recently politician. In the time frame 2012-2015, she was Minister of Education of the Republic of Moldova. She launched several reforms in the field of education and took corruption fighting measures (according to the estimates of Transparency International, the total value of the bribe paid in education during the first two years of her mandate was reduced by 50%).The activity at the ministry brought her political capital. After the discovery of the one billion theft, which irremediably compromised the political class of Kishinev, in May 2016, she created together with other colleagues a new party - the Party Action and Solidarity. In the fall of the same year, she ran in the presidential elections, where she accumulated 47.9% of the votes. She further builds a different kind of party.

After the faculty, she worked at the Ministry of Economy since its first years of existence. She closely followed the elaboration of transition reforms and she experienced, alongside the majority of citizens of the Republic of Moldova, the failure of these reforms. She was employed afterwards at the Representation of the World Bank in Kishinev, where she continued working on the reform programmes in various areas. In 2009 -2010, she followed a master’s programme in public administration at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard, and in the next two years she worked as an advisor of one of the executive managers of the World Bank in Washington DC.

Translated by Simona Nichiteanu