European Union and Communism in Europe

This interview, which was taken right after April's 2009 post-electoral clashes in Kishinev, Republic of Moldova, describes the violent protest that occurred on April 7th, when the Party of Communists won fraudulently the majority of the votes. In this interview, Traian Băsescu, the president of Romania, talks about the accusations that were brought against him as being behind the protest and also talks about the future of Republic Of Moldova.

Romania and Moldova are two countries bordering each other in Eastern Europe. Moldova has the same language, culture, traditions and religion as Romania because it has been part of it until WW2. After the creation of Soviet Union, Moldova was annexed from Romania and turned into a Socialist Republic. Our culture and language was mixed with the Russian one, so a new nation, called “Moldova” would be born. Moldovan people were taught that Romanians sold us to Soviet Union and that they are worse that the Nazi people.

Since then, the political relations between Moldova and Romania have gotten cold, even after that fall of the Soviet Union. And this is one of the things that Traian Băsescu talks in the interview: because Romania is part of the European Union and the Communist Party’s ideology is anti-European and anti-Romanian, the presidents of the two countries barely talked since 2000 when the Communist Party won the elections in Moldova for the first time. Every donation or approach that came from Romania towards Moldova was called as “an attempt of violating the status of Moldova as an independent country”. The event of April 7th made the Communists madder than they already were.

Here is an argument from the president of Romania, Traian Băsescu:


“We want the citizens of Moldova -- our brothers from the Republic of Moldova -- to have the chance to strive for prosperity. This cannot happen unless Moldova vigorously and steadily chooses the path toward integration into the European Union”


April 7th 2009 was the second call of revolution after the fall of Soviet Union in 1989, and also the saddest day in the history. After the results were announced that the Communist Party won the elections, people gathered at the National Assembly Square to protest. (It is known that only old citizens vote for Communists and in that year, high numbers of teenagers were present at the voting polls). The protest( also called the “The Protest of the Youth”) started peacefully but ended bloody when a group of teenagers attacked the House of Parliament, busting in it, throwing all the furniture and computers outside the windows and then burning the entire building. More than 200 teenagers (mostly under aged) were arrested and tortured by the authorities and one person killed as a consequence of excessive beating with the feet and truncheons. Unfortunately this event has been kept quietly in a secret since the Communist Party shut down all the media, cell phone and internet connection and in the entire country.

So, here is the structure of the argument:

Premise: We want the citizens of Moldova -- our brothers from the Republic of Moldova -- to have the chance to strive for prosperity.
Conclusion: This cannot happen unless Moldova vigorously and steadily chooses the path toward integration into the European Union.

My diagnosis for this argument is “Healthy” because the President of Romania gives strong reasons to believe that Moldova cannot have a progressive future unless joining the European Union.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, Moldova had a chance of uniting back with Romania but it chose the path of an independent country. Since 1991 Moldova has encountered a constant economic crisis, starting with the change of the money currency. When the “Ruble” (the currency of the Soviet Union) changed into “Leu” (the new currency), all the people’s savings turned out to be lost. For example, 40,000 Rubles (amount enough to buy the luxurious “Volga”, the dream-car of every Soviet citizen ) turned to be as less as 12 dollars.

Throughout the years, the economy of the Moldova was getting worse and worse, becoming the poorest country in Europe. Because of corruption reasons, more and more people left the country, mostly young couples, leaving the old people to vote for the Communist Party for the sake of “old, good times”. Moldova has proven that it cannot exist economically by itself unless joining a bigger political power.

It is so comfortable to blame Romania for “interfering in Moldova’s politics”, as the Moldovan president Vladimir Voronin did. But Romania has helped it’s “brothers” unconditionally since joining the E.U in 2007, offering free Romanian citizenship to all native-Romanians in Moldova.

Since 2000, Moldova found itself trapped between 2 major political powers: the western (European Union) and eastern (Russia and the Community of Independent States). Since today, Moldova hasn’t made a decision of what path it wants to follow, leading it to major economic crisis, high percentage of migration and poverty.