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A new political crisis
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The political crisis is escalating in the Republic of Moldova. When identifying the parameters of this crisis we should consider how does it evolve, who are the stakeholders, what generated it, political context and its impact on the political evolution in the Republic of Moldova. Let’s consider them one by one.
The current political crisis is totally different from the previous ones in that it evolves in all the known and imaginable forms, except for the hunger strike, namely: street protests and protest rallies; boycotting of the legislative sessions; Japanese strike of the employees; international institutions mediating the conflict.
The second distinction is the fact that almost all major political parties, regardless of doctrine or strategies promoted, from Christian-Democrats to Socialists accepted to form a joint anti-Communist front. Consequently, claims that behind this joint front lie the selfish and obscure interests of some parties are no longer valid. The fact is that political parties disagreeing with the Communist ruling were cast 47% on the last elections, figure comparable to the 50% gathered by the Communists.
And the third distinction of the new crisis is the fact that its parameters are easily quantifiable. For one thing suppression of the freedom of speech and access to information have been reflected in the two PACE Resolutions, furthermore they have become the topic of one of its recent winter sessions. Another issue related to undermining independent judiciary was also reflected in PACE Resolution, whereas the recent court hearings have had a big impact, determining employees to enter a strike and foreign investors to voice their reactions. And finally, the fact that the Communist party has recently blocked two initiatives on conducting referenda on issues of paramount importance for the society illustrates that the mechanisms of problem resolution are replaced by administrative or voluntary methods. The reason why governors indulge in such a behavior is their obsession to edify the “vertical power”, i.e. establish a total control over political and economic life and information circulation, which would allow them to stay in power for an indefinite time
However, the major factor which determined the consolidation of highly heterogeneous opposition parties remains to be the fact that Communist party affected corporate interests of the opposition leaders at the time they were due to start preparations for the upcoming local elections scheduled for May. Modifications operated by the Communist Party to the Law on Political Parties obliging parties to yearly submit evidence that they have at least 5,000 members to the Ministry of Justice, are viewed by many as an attempt to harass political parties. And most importantly not allow them to concentrate on really important things. For one thing, the Government delayed amendment of the Regulation on signature collection procedure, thus 30% of the precious time allocated for the signature collection has been wasted. Secondly, the requirement to submit lists of the party members typed and on disk would require not only time but also human resources and equipment. However the right to associate in parties should not be conditioned on the human or technical resources possessed by the party, especially as the Law on Political Parties does not provide for the state support to parties, as is the case in many countries. And last but not least, a considerable part of the active citizens are working abroad. If their signatures are not updated they would be excluded from the party, consequently one of the citizen’s fundamental rights would be breached. And finally, the new procedure for submitting the list of party members on the eve of the revision of the country territorial division generates not only confusion but also tension. The reason for this is the fact that parties should have a certain number of members in at least half of the second level administrative territorial units. Both the number of administrative-territorial units and the number of party members in each of them shall be changed in two months, bringing additional headache to political parties.