Moldova - Romania: Controversial Issue Open for Debate
Although I am very well aware that the previous poll is not the ideal way of depicting the public’s opinion on a certain issue, nevertheless the majority of those who voted think that Romania is not interfering into Moldovan internal affairs as the Moldovan government claims.
However, accurate information (which should be the basis for any rational decision and opinion) on this issue is scarce, which fully justifies the “don’t know” option of the poll. Only after doing some research on this issue and watching the last night edition of the PROTV Chisinau program In PROfunzime, did I conclude that, most likely Romania is just trying to help Moldovan citizens gain better access to EU, and is not threatening the country’s sovereignty.
As Vladimir Socor put it, “the dispute has escalated beyond issues of history and national identity, now seemingly revolving around Moldova’s continuation as a state.” The issue, a rather important one, is on the table, and open for debate in which I invite you all to participate.
Comments:
I'd be interested in knowing how Romanians and Moldovans feel about whether or not Moldova should become part of Romania.
Perhaps a professionally-conducted survey or poll can reveal this. Or a referendum, although the political circumstances (in both countries) do not make such an option an immediate possibility.
V.Socor’s words describe well the existing picture. It is about “Moldova’s continuation as a state”. Which means it is about the existence or disappearance of Republic of Moldova as it is – a country with a faulted political and territorial sovereignty, with a communist leadership (or any type of leadership formed of Soviet-made functionaries), and with a political and economic system controlled by Kremlin interest groups.
If we accept that this is an objective assessment of today’s Moldova, then what we got? Given that the bulk of Moldovans will get Romanian passports, they will be able to travel to the West, Romania, and see the benefits and opportunities of their citizen-serving political systems. They will understand that it is the Moldovan leadership that hinders the same development in Moldova. Having their homes and relatives here, they are bound to this territory. So, it is not hard for Moldovans to realize, that it is better to bring Europe into Moldova, than to leave Moldova looking for Europe. They will either vote for a political force that will provide them this, or, if they come to believe such a party doesn’t exist in Moldova, - they might get mobilized to join Romania.
Additionally, the biggest nightmare of our political elite is that Romania one day may make the same claim that Russia does today: “we got o lot of our citizens in Moldova and it is our duty to take care of them”. Today’s Chisinau doesn’t want Romania to “take care” of anyone in Moldova. In fact the Communist leadership does not even want to join EU, since this means they’ll lose their grasp on power. I wrote an article on this, giving some detailed reasoning.
So, finally, it is about a security threat perception, since the current leadership (Communist Party particularly), believes that a successful Romanian involvement in Moldova jeopardizes their political stature. In Moldova people get involved in politics for personal welfare reasons, so the popularization of a “Romanian” idea means a threat to personal welfare of many politicians.
A diplomat from the Romanian Embassy in Chisinau said that the current system of processing Romanian citizenship application is too slow to allow the alleged number of 500,000 applications to actually get the citizenship in the next 30-40 years.
It is true that Romania could establish a more efficient system, but this requires political will particularly from the Romanian side. Moldovan officials can do nothing to impede such an initiative. All they can do is try to earn political capital with declarations and threats.