Moldovan President Maia Sandu said that in a referendum she would vote for unification with Romania. How do Moldovans react to her words?
„I would vote for unification with Romania. Look at what is happening around Moldova and in the world today. "It is becoming increasingly difficult for a small country like Moldova to survive as a democracy, as a sovereign state and to oppose Russia," said Maya Sandu on January 11 in the British podcast The Rest is Politics.
In the same interview, the president also stated that according to polls, most Moldovan citizens today would not support unification with Romania, so official Chisinau is moving towards the most realistic option approved by voters - the country's entry into the EU.
Socialists and Communists demand Sandu's resignation
The leader of the largest opposition Party of Socialists and former president of the country, Igor Dodon, immediately sharply criticized Sandu's statement. According to him, she dreamed of becoming the head of the Romanian state, her position was dictated by the selfish thought of her own future.
On January 13, the socialists issued an official statement demanding Sandu's immediate resignation due to the "threat to the existence of Moldova as an independent state". They demanded that the Prosecutor General's Office open an investigation "for treason" and once again called on "all patriotic forces" to put aside their tactical differences and unite.
The same statement was made by the Communist Party, which called the president's statement “an act of treason and a gross violation of the presidential oath”.
”Saviors of Moldova's independence and identity”
”The parties that are in crisis are grasping at the idea that they are the only saviors of Moldova's independence and identity”, says analyst Andrei Cureraru regarding the opposition's reactions. He points out that there is nothing new in Sandu's statement - she has been consistently saying the same thing since 2016.
The expert recalls that back in 1918, Sfatul Cerii (the State Council), immediately after the proclamation of the Moldovan People's Republic, made a decision to join it with Romania, in whose composition it was until 1940, until it was annexed by the Soviet Union. Therefore, the topic of unification has been constantly debated publicly since Moldova gained independence in 1991.
Today, the majority of the population speaks Romanian, which is identical to Moldovan with its Cyrillic script. And the ratings of the idea of unification change depending on the political context and military threats, but do not fall below 30 percent, Cureraru points out. “Sandu's statement has a foreign policy focus - so that Moscow can understand what scenario can be implemented in the event of a military attack."
Is Maya Sandu tired?
The latest sociological surveys confirm the expert's words - they make it clear that the idea of unification with Romania is supported by about a third of the surveyed citizens of Moldova.
Chisinau political scientist Vitaly Andrievsky notes that Maya Sandu's formally careful and correct formulation this time suddenly caused a resonance and may be a political and psychological signal of fatigue. As he explains - during the years of her presidency, she had to face an extremely large number of crises: from the pandemic and systemic pressure from Russia to the war in Ukraine.
At the same time, the key responsibility was concentrated only on her, as the person with the highest rating in the country. “If the Russian army had reached the Moldovan border, over 70 percent of Moldovans would have spoken out in favor of unification with Romania. The main question, however, is whether Bucharest is ready for this." This issue is not discussed publicly, but it is key, since it is about social burdens in the form of pensions and salaries, investments and toxic regions such as Gagauzia and Transnistria.
Today, Moldova is institutionally weak, economically vulnerable and has territorial problems, says Andrievsky. To establish order, it needs reforms, which the EU is actually helping with. Therefore, the political scientist is more inclined to see Sandu's statement not as a call for real unification with Romania, but as an alarming signal of overloading the system, of team fatigue and the fact that the country has been living in survival mode for too long.