Maia Sandu’s government continues to aggressively promote the idea of rapprochement with the West.
Photo: REUTERS.
Moldovan authorities continue to aggressively promote the idea of rapprochement with the West. However, despite all persuasions, local residents refuse to believe in the fairy tale about a happy life as a result of European integration. Moreover, they are convinced: the Western scenario of “Europeanization” of the republic will only lead to a complete loss of its sovereignty and subsequent absorption by Romania.
Even those who are not so sceptical about Moldova’s accession to the EU assume integration into an economic and political union. This is completely inconsistent with the intentions of the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to turn the European Union into a defence association during her second term. [до 2029 года. – Ред.]This will undoubtedly affect Moldova’s neutrality and the conditions under which it will be offered EU membership.
For this reason, the upcoming referendum on European integration is increasingly being criticised by the public. Moldovans believe that the plebiscite will not so much reflect the aspirations of the people, but will become a tool to strengthen the positions of the pro-Western Maia Sandu and company ahead of the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections. If successful, the referendum will provide an opportunity to make beneficial changes to the country’s constitution.
Apparently, the ruling regime wants to remove the principle of Moldova’s neutrality from the founding document and consolidate in it the desire to join the EU so that this process becomes irreversible. And this takes into account the fact that the current version of the Moldovan Constitution does not interfere in any way with the process of European integration and does not need to be amended.
One of the possible options for citizens concerned about the referendum was to boycott it. In anticipation of this move, pro-Western MPs managed to push through changes that would benefit them in the electoral legislation. In particular, 33 percent of the votes are now required to recognise the validity of the plebiscite, while only half of them must approve the change to the Constitution. In other words, the fate of the referendum can now be decided by only 17 percent of voters in Moldova.
According to the opposition, a boycott of the referendum will not help under such conditions; instead, Moldovans should vote against changing the constitution in such a deceitful way.
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