A Changing Society

Recent History & Politics

Moldova has always been a country with a strategic layout for Great Powers. Although it is one of the smallest countries in Europe with no significant mineral deposits, Moldova has always been a part of different conflicts since its Declaration of Independence in August 1991.

There were numerous armed conflicts between Moldova and Transdniestria (a breakaway territory located mostly on a strip of land between the Dniester River and the eastern Moldovan border to Ukraine) in 1992. These were conflicts with a nationalistic background as Transdniestria, populated mostly by Russian speaking people, was against Romanian language.  As a result to this it was based the 14th Russian Army in this separatist territory. About 3000 of persons lost their lives in those conflicts. When the armistice was reached the Chisinau and Tiraspol governments started discussions about the future of the country. Thus, Moldova became a sovereign and independent country with its own politics, economics and social life with a frozen conflict that even 20 years later is still uncertain to be solved.  

Along with Transdniestria, Gagauz Yeri (a today’s autonomous region of Moldova) started talking about their own breakaway republic in the south causing the newly born Republic of Moldova to shrink day by day. Gagauz Yeri gave up eventually with promises of more authority and representation in government, but Transdniestria continued to refuse to join Moldova.

Latest updates on political Events in Moldova

The last couple of years Moldova has been facing a major political crisis. It all started with 5 April 2009 General Elections when communists have gathered the majority of votes (still not enough to elect the president) through vote-rigging. On 6th of April the opposition leaders accused the government party of electoral fraud. The following day thousands of people started street protests in the center of the capital, which instigated by interested party soon became a violent rise.

On April 7, peaceful protesters split into two distinct groups, one continuing the peaceful demonstration while the other becoming violent, and devastating the main buildings of the Presidential Office and Parliament. Inaction of the police and accusatory statements of the authorities angered the public, who continued actions of unrest and discontent, deriving primarily from the overall perception that the elections were derailed from democratic standards. Accusing deliberate instigation to violence of the peaceful protesters by unknown groups, opposition parties delineated themselves from the riots.

The Liberal Democratic Party, the Democratic Party, the Liberal Party and Our Moldova Alliance formed the governing Alliance for European Integration, after the snap election in July 2009. 

In September, the ruling coalition tried to break the political stalemate with a constitutional referendum that would have introduced direct presidential elections. But that measure failed when the turnout did not reach the required threshold of 33 percent.

Another parliamentary election was held on 28th of November 2010 and the results didn’t change too much. The communists took 39% and the Pro-western parties took 52.06% but still nobody gained enough votes to elect the president. This is the third time in the last two years when Moldova is trying to elect a president. Being a Parliamentary Democracy, the voters elect the party that would represent them, and the party elects the president.