Moldova: Maia Sandu ponders unification with Romania
In an interview for the British podcast The Rest is Politics, Maia Sandu, President of the Republic of Moldova, said that she would vote in favour of unification with Romania if a referendum were held on the issue. She noted that for a small country like Moldova, it was becoming "increasingly difficult to survive as a democracy, as a sovereign country." Is unification a realistic option?
A purely hypothetical statement
One shouldn't read too much into the president's statements, G4Media.ro concludes:
“Maia Sandu said that in a referendum, she would vote in favour of unification with Romania. But she also clearly stated that there is no such political agenda. The obstacles are obvious and have been explained: there is no majority support for this in Moldovan society; there are significant security risks in a region affected by Russia's war against Ukraine; there are constitutional limitations and, above all, the country wants to join the EU as an independent state. Sandu did not present unification as a government project, but as a personal preference in a hypothetical referendum.”
Moscow's nightmare
Unification with Romania would thwart Kremlin goals, notes the Romanian service of Deutsche Welle:
“The expected reactions of the Kremlin's political agents in Chișinău confirm exactly what the president said in her interview, and what Putin never wanted to hear, namely that the Republic of Moldova is working on a Plan B – unification with Romania, which is the Kremlin's nightmare. ... We should recall what Gennady Seleznyov, head of the Russian Duma at the time, said at a press conference in Moldova's parliament in 2002. He bluntly admitted that Russia 'had started the war in Transnistria to prevent the unification of Moldova with Romania.' ... In other words, to prevent Moldova from escaping Russia's sphere of influence.”
Undermining faith in her own country
agora.md is outraged:
“By saying that survival is becoming increasingly difficult for a small country, the president has offered a direct assessment of the future viability of the Republic of Moldova as a state and undermined her own mandate, even if she went on to say that the people must decide themselves. The trust of citizens and the trust of external partners in state institutions, as well as citizens' loyalty to the country, also depend on the president's conduct and words. In this context, she must avoid encouraging scepticism towards the state she leads. Yet it is precisely such nuances that can be sensed in the president's statement.”
Not a project to be rushed
Such a unification would be a long-term project, comments the Romanian service of Deutsche Welle:
“A project like this cannot be completed overnight, but if it were to be pursued, it could move forwards, and when the right moment came people would be prepared. However, Transnistria would have to be kept separate because Romania cannot bring all the misery from there into its own country. The pro-Russian networks would also have to be broken up and the hybrid war ended. These are all details that would take years to work out, as they have never been addressed by the two countries.”