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Moldova’s pro-Europe parties eye new coalition despite Socialist poll victory
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Moldova’s three main pro-Europe parties appear to be on course to form a coalition, despite the pro-Moscow Socialist party coming first in Sunday’s election.
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With 87% of the vote counted, the Liberal Democrats, the Liberals and the Democrats had a combined vote of 44%, enough to win a majority in the 101-seat parliament.
This was in spite of the pro-Russia Socialist party taking a surprise lead with 21.5% of the vote and the communists, who wish to revise part of a trade deal with the EU, in third place with 17.8%.
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A three-party coalition, led by prime minister Iurie Leanca’s Liberal Democrats, has piloted one of Europe’s smallest and poorest countries, wedged between war-torn Ukraine and EU member Romania, along a course of integration with mainstream Europe since 2009, culminating in the ratification of a landmark association agreement with the EU this year.
Sunday’s vote took place in the shadow of a separatist war in Ukraine, triggered by it following similar pro-Europe policies that set it on a collision course with Moscow.
Pre-election surveys showed deep division over whether the former Soviet country should stick to the pro-Europe path pursued for the past five years or move back into Russia’s orbit.
The coalition’s poor record of fighting corruption and Russian pressure on Moldova to change course had raised questions over its ability to hold on to power.
“The three (coalition) parties, whose strategic aim is European integration, will have no difficulty in forming a ruling majority even without the help of the parties of the left,” said analyst Oazu Nantoi, director of the Institute of Public Policies political research centre. He predicted they would be able to muster 54 seats in the new parliament, a comfortable majority.
Figures released by election authorities gave the Liberal Democrats 19.2% of the vote, the Democratic party 15.8% and the Liberal party 9.4%.
The strong vote for the socialists, whose leader, Igor Dodon, is close to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, reflected a deep reluctance among many to diminish the close, historic relationship with Russia, Moldova’s main supplier of energy – and also a fear of the consequences.
They had campaigned against the westward movement of Moldova and in favour of the Russia-led Customs Union economic bloc.
Moldova’s breakaway pro-Russian enclave of Transdniestria gives Russia a potential springboard for action in the landlocked country of 3.5 million. However, Moscow has so far shown no readiness to intervene. But it has expressed its displeasure by banning imports of wines, vegetables and meat from an economy that relies on agricultural exports.
Many analysts say that with Moldova already gaining from the EU deal – its citizens can travel visa-free to western Europe – the pro-European drive will be difficult to reverse.
Leanca, the prime minister, has said he wants full EU membership for Moldova by 2020.
The Communist party had been expected to recover its old position as the dominant force of the left, but the Socialists appeared to have made inroads into its vote.
“The communists changed their position too much in relation to the European Union and the Customs Union, whereas the socialists positioned themselves as the one pro-Russian party,” said Vitalie Andrievschii, a political analyst.
