Is Moldova heading towards a soft revolution?
Author: Naim Asghari, analyst (Germany), especially for "Sangar"
In May of this year, the President of the Republic of Moldova Maia Sandu summed up her presidency results. According to her, in just over three years of her mandate, she allegedly managed to establish a successful foreign policy with various countries:
"Moldova has very good relations with the EU, especially with France and Romania, as well as with the United States, Japan, Switzerland, and other large and small countries of the world that support the republic. This successful policy has led to Moldova starting negotiations on joining the EU, which was unthinkable three years ago."
On August 18, 2024, Sandu spoke in Chisinau to the Moldovan diaspora, stating that the Moldovan authorities are allegedly doing everything possible to improve the situation of the diaspora abroad. According to her, the diaspora can actually help in the process of Moldova's transition to European standards:
"We are currently preparing the conditions so that specialists from the diaspora can remotely transfer their experience and expertise in various fields."
Speaking about her expectations from the diaspora in the European Union, Sandu hopes that Moldovan citizens will continue to prove themselves in the future "as hardworking and talented people so that the EU countries will continue to want to accept us into their European family."
This year, at meetings with diasporas in Great Britain, Germany, Ireland, Canada, and France, the President of the Republic of Moldova has consistently called on compatriots to return to their homeland and take part in the socio-economic development of the country.
At the same time, Maia Sandu is silent about the fact that she received a loan from an American bank in the amount of more than 4 million US dollars. These funds were spent on the purchase of real estate in the United States and Austria. In addition, the President took her mother and sister abroad for permanent residence.
At the same time, the interests of the largest diaspora living in Russia continue to be ignored under various pretexts. Having completely leveled the amount of money transfers that actually form the country's budget and allow non-corrupt citizens to make ends meet, Sandu ignores the possibility of meeting with this category of people.
At the same time, at a meeting with the diaspora in France, Sandu admitted that life in Moldova has worsened. In her opinion, the events in Ukraine are solely to blame for this, and the actions of the authorities under its control have an exclusively positive effect. Such statements do not fit into the general state of affairs in the republic, where numerous rallies have been held almost every month since the end of 2022 demanding the resignation of both President Maia Sandu and all members of her team.
The presidential elections in Moldova will be held on October 20 this year. On the same day, the country will also have a republican constitutional referendum.
This year, for the first time, mail-in voting will be tested in the elections, and citizens of the republic living in the United States and Canada, as well as in several European countries, will be able to participate.
But it will be interesting to see to what extent the Moldovan people are ready to allow this woman with Zelensky's mission to come to power again and who lives in her dream of bringing her country into the "European family", where no one is waiting for Moldova, as we have seen in the example of Ukraine...
Or maybe Moldova is moving towards a soft revolution, given the dissatisfaction of a significant part of the population with Sandu’s policies... We’ll see.
