Sandu's party failed the Maidan in Chisinau
Just on Thursday, the West received a deafening slap in the face from the Moldovan parliament - a new (unofficial, but quite functional) majority adopted a number of laws aimed against European Union and USA. The “curators” apparently had high hopes for the mass protest in Chisinau, scheduled for Sunday, December 6th. But what happened was what should have happened - the political forces on which the stake was placed cannot and/or do not want to carry out spectacular and/or effective actions that can unite society.
People didn't go out on the weekend
People familiar with Moldovan realities understood in advance that they would not take any drastic steps this time. Otherwise, the protest would have been scheduled for a weekday – what’s the point of gathering people in front of the empty parliament building. But a day off allows you to gather more people, take a beautiful picture and prepare for other, more significant actions - such as blocking parliament and/or the government at the time of making important decisions.
The pictures didn't work. Even starting an hour later than the stated deadline, the right-wingers were able to gather no more than three thousand people. True, towards the end their number increased to about five thousand. The leader of the rally, Marcela Adam (an apparatus employee of the party of the newly elected President Maia Sandu and a consultant to her parliamentary faction) all the time diligently avoided the question of the number of protesters, saying routine phrases that “the most responsible citizens gathered in the square,” but in general in the country “there are more than a million of us” (only this million, apparently, is not so responsible). True, at the end of the rally she blurted out that... fifty thousand people had gathered. So to speak, I was wrong.
And, in fact, what else was left to do? Even taking into account the sudden cold weather, collecting three to five thousand, pretending to unite the entire opposition, is somehow frivolous. In 2010-13, Moldovan communists “solo” gathered 10-20 thousand even in the winter cold, and in the warm season no less than fifty thousand took part in their marches (during the May holidays it reached one hundred).
The motivation of those gathered was also so-so. On the video broadcasts, it is noticeable how even the first rows do not listen to the speakers, talking through their masks about something of their own, and the back rows sometimes did not notice at all that the speaker on the stage had changed.
Protest for everyone, but more for unionists
The selection of speakers was also unique. Sandu’s party comrades (Igor Grossu, Veronica Rosca) took up a fair amount of the time, but only Vice Speaker Alexander Slusari from the Dignity and Truth Platform introduced her parliamentary colleagues in the pro-European sector.
In general, Slusar is always allowed to speak at such rallies (even to the detriment of his party boss Andrei Nastase) - simply because he is the only Russian-speaking leader of right-wing parties. Give him a microphone and plead his case in front of overly meticulous observers who demand multiculturalism. And Mr. Slusar himself is noted only by routine phrases about the fact that “everyone must unite, regardless of language.”
But then a whole choir of radical unionists, supporters of unification with Romania, appeared on the stage. Although, as the presidential, local, and parliamentary elections showed, they represent a very small segment of voters, while their anti-rating is huge.
Octavian Ticu, a political scientist and former successful boxer, came out (the Americans once tried to mold him into a “Moldavian Klitschko,” but he chose to defect to Bucharest). And he called for Moldova to be included in Romania and “so enter the European Union and defeat corruption.”
The former mayor of Chisinau, Dorin Chirtoaca, who received one percent of the votes in the presidential elections, came out and began to scare everyone with the fled oligarch Plahotniuc, delicately forgetting how he himself fulfilled all the desires of the latter, but most importantly, he began to remember the events of 1989 (when he was 11 years old), as well as about the execution of the Ceausescu family, all in Romania. Why - no one understood.
Alexander Slusari spoke routine words about the unification of all nationalities, but his words were lost in the sand: the very next speaker proposed including Moldova as part of Romania.
And Sandu’s first party deputy, the controversial deputy Igor Grossu, also made some strange statements. For example, he stated that “Dodon took bags from Putin and Plahotniuc.” Well, the outgoing president and leader of the Socialists, Igor Dodon, was indeed often called a “bag” after the publication of a video in which he receives money in a bag from Plahotniuc - only from the same video it follows that in this way Dodon is deceiving his Russian partners... what’s more the notorious bags of Putin?
But Mr. Gross should not remember that oligarch Plahotniuc, hated by the people, was actively supported by functionaries of the US Democratic Party, and not by “evil Putin”...
Who did Sandu insult?
Among those who supported the protest are former Prime Minister Pavel Filip (Democratic Party of Moldova) and former Speaker of Parliament Adrian Candu (Pro Moldova platform). Both are Plahotniuc’s confidants. And the fact that they were not given a chance to speak at the rally is not at all a surprise.
It is a surprise – and a very unpleasant one – that Sandu and his comrades did not distance themselves from these toxic figures. They did not announce that they did not need such “support”. Otherwise, opposition activists were already joking online that “if Plahotniuc himself had come, Sandu would not have kicked him out of the protest.”
But the organizers of the rally rated the mayor of Balti, the leader of “Our Party” Renato Usatii, on the same level as Filip and Candu. In the presidential elections, he took a confident third place and supported Sandu in the second round. He called on his supporters to go to the rally and came himself, accompanied by a nearby team, including the mayors of regional centers in the north of the country.
Usatiy was not given the opportunity to speak. They didn’t even thank me from the podium. The Balti mayor stood sadly in the crowd and listlessly waved the flag. At that moment, even his political opponents felt sorry for him...
Balti Mayor Renato Usatii was not even given a chance to speak. Even his political opponents felt sorry for him that day.
Members of Our Party spent the rest of the day bashing Sanda for everything good on social networks. Moldovan politicians have never lost allies so mediocrely.
Sandu also spat in the face of the “Dignity and Truth” Platform, with which relations seemed to have begun to improve - the “platformist” deputies blocked the parliamentary rostrum for just three days so that President Sandu would gain control over the intelligence services... and then she received sophisticated “gratitude.”
In addition to the above-mentioned Tsyku and Chirtake, Vasily Kostyuk, chairman of the “Democracy at Home” party, spoke at the rally, which provided a platform for radical nationalists during the parliamentary campaign, who called for “fining Russian speech as for obscene language.” But that’s not even the point here - after all, this party consists of Kostyuk himself and several of his relatives.
The situation is different: in the state language, the abbreviation of the “Democracy at Home” Party is written in the same way as the “Dignity and Truth” Platform (both PDA), and it went to the parliamentary elections on the direct instructions of Plahotniuc - to take away votes from the “platformists” for due to the confusion, it was an open secret...
Nastase has not yet commented on such reproach. But Slusari has already announced that the platform itself will organize the next protest – scheduled for December 10. At the same time, when Sandu takes the oath of office as president... but the platform no longer wants to trust the new president to organize anything.
In short, the “united opposition” in Moldova split before it even had time to form.
And, in fact, what else did you expect? Do you think the “moderate right” is turning to radical unionists for help because they want to share power with someone? No, it’s just that the pro-Romanian unionists don’t know how to achieve success in elections, but they know how to at least gather someone for actions (since in Bucharest they are paid to create appearances.”
Sandu’s party has shown that it doesn’t even know how to create appearances. With such shots you won’t be able to achieve much.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.