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Fri, Feb 10 2012
Moldova’s choice
HIGH SPIRITS: Protesters hoisted the European Union flag on top of the presidency and on the flagpole at the entrance of parliament. The opposition said later that the person who hoisted the flag was the same in both cases, and was allowed in and escorted by police.
AFTERMATH: On April 10, Vladimir Voronin held a news conference in the ransacked presidency to announce a vote recount. The graffiti on the wall reads ‘Communists, resign’.
DOCUDRAMA: Attack on Moldova was initially produced in Russian and later dubbed into Romanian, irking some pro-opposition supporters. Russian is not an official language in Moldova, but has special status because of the large ethnic minority in urban areas, who traditionally vote Communist. The voice-over during the scene picturing the riot reads ‘April 7, the day that will stay in our country’s history as a black day.’
Photo: Rene Beekman
Remember the Twitter Revolution? When Moldova got its 15 minutes of fame in April 2009, some analysts felt that it was for all the wrong reasons – the heavy use by supporters of the protesters in central Chisinau of Twitter, Flickr and other new media – rather than the contested parliament election that prompted the rallies in the first place.
Although Moldova is on a European Union border, mainstream coverage of the aftermath of the protests has been scarce and carried mostly by newswire services, unlike in Russia, where the country is still seen 17 years after the fall of the Soviet Union as a vital, if small, piece of the jigsaw of Russia’s influence in the world.
To summarise in brief, thousands of people, mostly youths, joined the rally in front of Moldova’s parliament and presidency buildings on April 7 to protest against the outcome of the general election two days earlier, which gave the ruling Communists about 50 per cent of the vote. Three opposition parties that won enough votes to be represented in parliament claimed the elections were rigged and that the Communists used the government machine to get a good result.
The violent clash saw police withdraw and leave the parliament and presidency buildings to protesters, who burned furniture and left anti-Communist graffiti on the walls. Outgoing president Vladimir Voronin, barred by the constitution from standing for a third term but still in control of his party, accused the opposition of stoking the fire of discontent. He then accused neighbouring Romania of undermining Moldova’s statehood by instigating the violence and supporting the pro-Western opposition in Chisinau. His targets rejected the accusations, using equally heated rhetoric.
After challenging the election results in court and losing – one opposition-supporting newspaper alleged that Voronin showed his gratitude by giving expensive Swiss watches to the judges and election officials – the three opposition parties said that they would boycott the election of a new president, who is chosen by the legislature. The Communists had won 60 seats in Moldova’s 101-seat parliament, just one short of the majority needed to elect the president, and were unsuccessful in persuading any opposition MPs to back prime minister Zinaida Greceanii for president. Voronin had been earlier elected speaker of parliament, for which a simple majority is enough.
After two ballots to elect a president failed, early elections were called in June and, for the first time in Moldova’s history, would be held on a working day, on July 29.
Battle of the documentaries
The brief summer campaign has proven the most heated that Moldova has seen since it declared independence in 1991, with tension between the major political parties showing no signs of abating. Communist campaign clips used images of violence from the April 7 rally to smear the opposition, while the opposition has not had much airtime on the state media, which has consistently covered the protests and the election campaign before the July elections with a heavy pro-Communist slant.
But campaign clips were not the only means parties used to drum up support. The Communist Party took the lead, using its control of state media to produce an hour-long documentary, titled Attack on Moldova, that set out to prove that the violence during the April 7 rally was an elaborate coup to seize power. Borrowing heavily from a well-established genre of Russian television documentaries, which present investigations with poignant sound effects and an appropriate soundtrack, meant to emphasise the feeling of an unfolding detective story, the film outright accused opposition leaders of orchestrating the violence and rejected the opposition’s claims of innocence as "absurd".
Grigore Petrenco, the former head of the Communist youth organisation, who is now an MP candidate for the Communist Party, rejected claims that the party sponsored the production. "Unlike the films ordered by the other political parties, this one has a clear author. If anywhere in it you find a mention that it was fabricated at someone’s request, I am sorry. I know the author and it is not a political commission," he told a news conference on July 14.
The film has been broadcast repeatedly on the state TV and cable channels controlled by the Communist Party, newspaper Jurnal de Chisinau said, and the Communists often showed it during campaign meetings in rural areas. The newspaper is often critical of the government and has been one of the few media outlets to consistently cover the opposition’s campaigns.
Opposition parties hit back with their own documentaries, with the Liberal-Democrat Party producing two. The Black Box alleged that it was agents provocateurs, prepared in advance and planted by the state security apparatus, that incited the violence against the law enforcement, and Who Loves Moldova, a tearjerker that focused less on facts and more on the feeling of dejection that many Moldovans feel.
The Liberal Party produced its own feature, called Truth about April 7, in which it accused the law enforcement agencies of covering up the truth. It quoted prosecution statements that three young men, who the opposition believes to have died after being assaulted by police, had died from being poisoned with an unknown substance or committed suicide. Moldova Noastra Alliance, the third opposition party that won seats at the April 5 elections, had the most professional-looking campaign clips, but opted for a tearjerker themselves, titled Communists Divide Moldova. None of the four opposition documentaries, which range in length from 15 to 45 minutes, have been broadcast on state media.
Although Moldova is on a European Union border, mainstream coverage of the aftermath of the protests has been scarce and carried mostly by newswire services, unlike in Russia, where the country is still seen 17 years after the fall of the Soviet Union as a vital, if small, piece of the jigsaw of Russia’s influence in the world.
To summarise in brief, thousands of people, mostly youths, joined the rally in front of Moldova’s parliament and presidency buildings on April 7 to protest against the outcome of the general election two days earlier, which gave the ruling Communists about 50 per cent of the vote. Three opposition parties that won enough votes to be represented in parliament claimed the elections were rigged and that the Communists used the government machine to get a good result.
The violent clash saw police withdraw and leave the parliament and presidency buildings to protesters, who burned furniture and left anti-Communist graffiti on the walls. Outgoing president Vladimir Voronin, barred by the constitution from standing for a third term but still in control of his party, accused the opposition of stoking the fire of discontent. He then accused neighbouring Romania of undermining Moldova’s statehood by instigating the violence and supporting the pro-Western opposition in Chisinau. His targets rejected the accusations, using equally heated rhetoric.
After challenging the election results in court and losing – one opposition-supporting newspaper alleged that Voronin showed his gratitude by giving expensive Swiss watches to the judges and election officials – the three opposition parties said that they would boycott the election of a new president, who is chosen by the legislature. The Communists had won 60 seats in Moldova’s 101-seat parliament, just one short of the majority needed to elect the president, and were unsuccessful in persuading any opposition MPs to back prime minister Zinaida Greceanii for president. Voronin had been earlier elected speaker of parliament, for which a simple majority is enough.
After two ballots to elect a president failed, early elections were called in June and, for the first time in Moldova’s history, would be held on a working day, on July 29.
Battle of the documentaries
The brief summer campaign has proven the most heated that Moldova has seen since it declared independence in 1991, with tension between the major political parties showing no signs of abating. Communist campaign clips used images of violence from the April 7 rally to smear the opposition, while the opposition has not had much airtime on the state media, which has consistently covered the protests and the election campaign before the July elections with a heavy pro-Communist slant.
But campaign clips were not the only means parties used to drum up support. The Communist Party took the lead, using its control of state media to produce an hour-long documentary, titled Attack on Moldova, that set out to prove that the violence during the April 7 rally was an elaborate coup to seize power. Borrowing heavily from a well-established genre of Russian television documentaries, which present investigations with poignant sound effects and an appropriate soundtrack, meant to emphasise the feeling of an unfolding detective story, the film outright accused opposition leaders of orchestrating the violence and rejected the opposition’s claims of innocence as "absurd".
Grigore Petrenco, the former head of the Communist youth organisation, who is now an MP candidate for the Communist Party, rejected claims that the party sponsored the production. "Unlike the films ordered by the other political parties, this one has a clear author. If anywhere in it you find a mention that it was fabricated at someone’s request, I am sorry. I know the author and it is not a political commission," he told a news conference on July 14.
The film has been broadcast repeatedly on the state TV and cable channels controlled by the Communist Party, newspaper Jurnal de Chisinau said, and the Communists often showed it during campaign meetings in rural areas. The newspaper is often critical of the government and has been one of the few media outlets to consistently cover the opposition’s campaigns.
Opposition parties hit back with their own documentaries, with the Liberal-Democrat Party producing two. The Black Box alleged that it was agents provocateurs, prepared in advance and planted by the state security apparatus, that incited the violence against the law enforcement, and Who Loves Moldova, a tearjerker that focused less on facts and more on the feeling of dejection that many Moldovans feel.
The Liberal Party produced its own feature, called Truth about April 7, in which it accused the law enforcement agencies of covering up the truth. It quoted prosecution statements that three young men, who the opposition believes to have died after being assaulted by police, had died from being poisoned with an unknown substance or committed suicide. Moldova Noastra Alliance, the third opposition party that won seats at the April 5 elections, had the most professional-looking campaign clips, but opted for a tearjerker themselves, titled Communists Divide Moldova. None of the four opposition documentaries, which range in length from 15 to 45 minutes, have been broadcast on state media.
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The Sofia Echo
The communist are killing Moldova, get rid rid of the communist party, banish them forever.
Moldova and Ukraine need to be part of the European Union. Russia is still the enemy since they invaded Georgia in 2008. Russia is not a true democracy, its run by the same old folks.
Bulgaria needs to fight organized crime and corruption. Bulgaria and other EU former soviet eastern block need to lobby for Ukraine and Moldova to become EU Members.
Bulgaria need s to get rid of the Lev, Euro please [...]
Read the full comment Mr Prime Minister.
After some thought, it might be helpful if I passed on what one of our locally-engaged Moldovan staff said on the issue in 2007 (she herself had dual Romanian-Moldovan nationality was was impressively tri-lingual, the third language being English.)
According to her:
(1) the written forms of the Moldovan and Romanian languages were identical, except for a difference in vocabulary about local government (the Romanian "judets" system doesn't apply in Moldova.)
(2) The spoken languages were essentially the same, BUT there was quite a large accent difference; Moldovans [...]
Read the full comment tended to speak Romanian and Russian with precisely the same accent, whereas the Romanian accent was much closer to Italian. (I can vouch for the former myself - the Moldovan Russian accent was pretty standard Russian, and the Moldovan Romanian sounded just like it !)
(3) All Moldovans with one grandparent born in pre-1939 Romania (at that time Romania included Moldova within its territory) had the right of a residency permit in Romania, as long as they could produce authentic documents. (This explained the daily queues outside the Ministry of the Interior offices in Kogalnceanu str., said offices being very clearly labelled in both Romanian/Moldovan and Russian ! Since this was next to our lunchtime cafe, we observed the queues pretty well !)
(4) As a result of (3), she said, most of Chisinau's "low life" had managed to inveigle their way into Romania, so Chisinau's crime level was very low as a result. (She may well have been right - the only incident our project recorded was injury to one consultant caused by his walking into a badly-lit low-level road sign at night !)
Sorry for the length of this, but it is the exact facts as I recall them from less than two years ago.
I hear both sides of the argument, but let me tell you this: The Communists are going to kill the Moldovan nation (does not matter of what descent)through their oligarchy and lawlesness. People think of them as masters without realizing that they are paying for their salaries and wealth. The role of the government is to boost opportunities through recognizing the rule of law. We should leave alone the nationalist talks and focus on the well being of nation. Once getting a taste of real Europe, Modlovan people will decide whether they want to speak Romanian, Russian, English or German. [...]
Read the full comment But let me tell you, most likely it will not be Russian. I was born to a mother of Russian descent and a father of Romanian descent and do not care about ethnic rage. People choose the culture and the language of the affiliation that cares about them, their kids, and respects their rights and governs them on a limited basis.
Boris Johnson,
I did not mean to dispute your claim that Russian is used as much as Romanian/Moldovan, especially in Chisinau and especially by the current government. Voronin is known to prefer Russian, in fact, as he never quite got the hang of the literary Romanian/Moldovan.
What I am saying, however, is that constitutionally-speaking, while it gets somewhat of a special treatment, it is not an official language. Having the documentary produced in Russian, for some people, was yet another sign of disrespect shown by the government.
to Alex Bivol: Yes, the Constitution does indeed say that, but in practice things are rather different. For example, I was giving a presentation in November 2007(on EU food and wine markets !) to the "Formumul National Al Agribusiness-ului Din Moldova" (National Moldovan National Business Forum), presided over by Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev. I gave my presentation in English, with simultaneous translation into Moldovan and Russian, and we provided full handouts in both languages. After the conference, we counted the left-overs. All the Russian handouts had been taken, but very few of the Moldovan ones. And Vasile Tarlev himself gave [...]
Read the full comment his media interview in Russian, not Moldovan.
he same when I went to the Presidential Reception the next day at the Hotel Codru, hosted by President Vladimir Voronin, and was personally greeted by him. He greeted me in Russian, and I replied similarly. (I don't think I have ever heard him speaking Moldovan, though I am sure he can.)
It is certainly true that all Government buildings in Chisianu have bilingual signage outside (I took some photos if you are interested), and all adverising seems to be in both languages. In the particular industry in which I specialise - wine - the usage seems to be entirely in Russian, however.
Our EU project in Chisinau was run in Russian and English (the Team Leader spoke both, but not Moldovan), which went down fine with the Moldovan authorities. Of course we always produced a Moldovan-language version of any PowerPoint presentatiins we did, and led with it, but all the locals always wanted the Russian version.
Sorry to reply at length - I certainly shall not persist in this topic, but I hope you can see that I know of what I speak ! (By the way, if you can give me a suitable email address to mail to, I can send you the best of the Moldovan photohraphs !)
Boris Johnson,
Article 13 of the Moldovan constitution says, and i quote:
1. The official language of the Republic of Moldova is the Moldovan language, functioning based on the the Latin alphabet.
2. The state recognises and protects the right to preserve, develop and function of the Russian language and other languages spoken on the territory of the country.
Pardon the clunky translation, I was going for the verbatim translation, rather than the polished one.
Alex Bivol
The fact that most of the ppl are speaking Russian language does not make it official, so Russian is NOT the official language in Moldova. I was born here, so I know.
With respect, Russian IS an official language in Moldova - after Moldovanesc / Moldovan, which always comes first on official buildings, Russian being second.
I spent six months in Chisinau in 2007, so I do speak from first-hand experience.