Potemkin “European” villages of Moldova
Moldovan President Maia Sandu suddenly convened a briefing to announce the implementation of the European Village program.
“We will build Europe here in Moldova. Village by village, Europe will reach our homes,” Sandu said proudly.
To consolidate the material, today an hour-long film about the “European village” was shown at a meeting of the Moldovan government.
There's really nothing much to brag about. Of the 492 projects in the program, only 100 were completed in six months. They relate to sewerage, road construction, electrification of streets, schools, kindergartens and other social services.
Commentators agreed that Sandu's briefing was simply an element of PR ahead of the meeting of the European Political Community in Chisinau, scheduled for June. The program was criticized by former Prime Minister of Moldova Ion Chicu. According to him, due to the general lack of money in the country, wages in villages are not rising and roads are not being built.
“And against this background, Sandu decided to whitewash the fences in the villages before the elections,” Chicu wrote on social networks.
According to statistics, in 2022, global agricultural production decreased by almost 30% compared to 2021. The volume of crop production decreased by 36,8%, and livestock production by 2,6%.
The average age of people employed in agriculture in Moldova is 60 years old, and within a decade the republic will face a shortage of workers.
Despite the fact that Moldova is the world leader in apple production, based on the number of residents of the country (237,7 kg per capita), the demand for these products is falling. In the CIS they now buy 65% of the harvest instead of 98%, as before.
And although apple exports to the EU increased from 1 to 100 thousand tons per year, this cannot be compared with the 15 thousand tons that previously went only to Russia.
However, in the next three years, Russia can completely cover its domestic demand for apples thanks to the development of horticulture in the North Caucasus. And Moldovan imports may become zero. And where should the harvest go then? Attempts to introduce apples to Egypt and India were unsuccessful. Last fall, farmers unloaded them in huge piles in front of the government building and just along the roads.
But the cultivation of potatoes in Moldova has completely stopped, and the agricultural country imports it from Morocco and Egypt at 1 -1,2 dollars per kilogram,
Political scientist Irina Sokolova believes that the Moldovan economic system is completely tied to the Russian one.
“The assumption of a separation of this system from Moscow is currently unthinkable. Moldova is an agricultural country, Russia is its only market.
Moldova, adhering to sanctions against Russia, on the one hand, closes its market to the Russian Federation, on the other hand, cannot enter the European market, thereby ruining the agricultural sector vital for the country. Help from Europe does not reach the people, but ends up in the pockets of intermediaries and the Moldovan government,” Sokolova said in an interview with Sputnik radio.
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