Vlad Plahotniuc, the former leader of the Democratic Party, has commented on the new Moldovan government. 

 

"In Chisinau, such important events took place that I had to interrupt the break in making declarations which I had taken until today. Even more because there are already voices that have begun to speculate: some say that I did not participate in these changes and others are convinced that these changes are the product of my activity. In fact, I have manifested my position throughout my political activity, being more outlined in the last years of activity. I have considered and continue to consider that the only development path of the Republic of Moldova as an independent state is the path of Western practices, that is, the vector of Euro-Atlantic development of the Republic of Moldova. But, because I have submitted the mandate of PDM president and deputy in Parliament, and I am far from my colleagues, I do not think it would be in general fair to intervene with my personal opinion, especially in the complicated situation of terror in which they landed after June 2019. So, I did not participate and I was not involved in any way in producing these changes in Moldovan politics.

 

The overthrow of the Sandu government confirmed my prediction that President Dodon will impose his personal game, let Moscow take over Moldovan politics and do everything possible to focus the main political levers in his hands, reorienting the country's geopolitical sector from the West towards Russia. The anti-Plahotniuc stake was, in fact, a pro-Russian stake.

 

Today, after the collapse of the Sandu government, the Republic of Moldova has no chance to follow, as previously, a Euro-Atlantic development route, the pro-European strong position of recent years is now seriously compromised as well as the blame for this geopolitical disaster goes to the leaders of the ACUM bloc.

 

The lack of flexibility, the lack of strategy, including their unwillingness to dialogue and hostility toward the Democrats, has thrown the ACUM bloc's leaders into the Socialists' arms and led them down the wrong path, with consequences for the country, just to start with. In conclusion, we are seeing today that the ACUM leaders have found themselves in dire straits, and the Republic of Moldova has lost its pro-European geopolitical profile in a record time.

 

It is regrettable that there was a political and psychological conjuncture, through which democrats were involved. In the situation that has emerged in recent months, from reprisals against the Democratic Party, unlawfully abusive criminal records, and in an atmosphere of hatred, harassment and witch hunts, which PDM members were subjected to, especially from the ACUM bloc, the Democrats have voted to dismiss the Sandu government from a reflex of self-defense, as a reaction of natural revolt.

 

At the same time, that vote also represented a note given to the Sandu Government in the chapter on professionalism and government capacity. Compared to the concrete results offered by the PDM government, things suddenly went into decline: in the five months of PSRM-ACUM governance, apart from repeating the old electoral promises, nothing positive was either heard of or seen.

 

Unlike them, the PDM government, thanks to its professionalism and good organization, has managed to bring more discipline in public finances and customs, increasing the revenue to the public budget, year by year, month by month, so that in the three years of government to the budget an amount of about 35 billion lei came in addition.

We did not walk around the world with begging, as the governments did until and after the PDM. Our performance was accounted for facts, not in words. We arranged things in our country, in institutions and we found the necessary money. We stimulated the development of the economy, essentially reduced the number of control bodies and lowered the fiscal pressure on the business. This has allowed us to attract investments and create 170 thousand new jobs during the period of our government, to increase the salaries in the budget sector, but also the incomes of the employees from the private sphere by about 50%. Democrats managed to increase pensions and other social payments essentially, and during Christmas and Easter over 610 thousand pensioners and beneficiaries of social assistance received 600 lei each.

 

Higher budget revenues allowed us to launch more infrastructure projects, expected by people, such as "Good roads", "Good water for Moldova", hospitals and medical centers, schools and kindergartens were repaired, etc. We also launched the "First home" project, which has already allowed four thousand families to buy their own home and stay in Moldova. And in order to stimulate the birth and to further support the young families, we launched the project "A new life", based on which each newborn received in the maternity a box with the main things needed in the first months of life. The 200 lei was planned to be paid for each child, up to the age of 18, and other initiatives were expected by the citizens. But the so-called revolutionaries of right and left came and all these projects were overthrown, they were closed, instead nothing constructive was done, nothing.

 

But beyond these performance contrasts, so already visible to citizens, I would like to draw your attention to something else at the moment: the ACUM block has not shown performance not only in economy and government, but even in political dialogue, in the art of politics, if you want. We all convinced ourselves, including our external partners, how damaging the blind idealism of the ACUM bloc was, their rigidity in communication. This blind idealism proved to be more harmful than pragmatic and cold realism, through which it was more efficient to achieve the economic, social and geopolitical objectives during the PDM governance.

 

Even today, their blind idealism and rigidity have not disappeared. We note, with regret, that the representatives of the ACUM bloc have categorically refused dialogue with the PDM even after the Sandu Government was dismissed. Although there were many voices both inside and outside the Republic of Moldova, for PAS and PPDA MPs to ally with the PDM, and to install a new pro-European government, the leaders of the ACUM bloc have turned their backs, launching further attacks at the address of the Democrats. I hope, however, that they will grow political once and for all, better sooner rather than later.

 

In the meantime, I urge you to think about whether the pro-Western vector of the country can still be saved and how much effort, how much character is needed for this performance under the current conditions. I am convinced that the PDM deputies today represent the last and only political redoubt guaranteeing the maintenance of the Association Agreement with the EU and the PDM can condition and ensure in the perspective of the restoration of the Euro-Atlantic vector of the Republic of Moldova. Any geopolitical failure can be remedied by pragmatic political action, and Moldovan policy has shown, more than once, that everything is possible, if there is determination".