Perspective: PAS is Alone in the Pro-EU Lane
How did this happen? and how big a deal is it?
It has now become very clear that the only serious pro-European party running in the September elections is the Party of Action and Solidarity, aka PAS. This past week the extra-parliamentary “Together” Bloc of pro-EU parties fractured as Platform DA was expelled from the bloc for making an electoral pact with PAS. Other parties had recently left airing allegations of division and infighting, and PAS made clear that other parties were also offered a chance to join in a common effort. We’ll get into the details of these maneuvers in this week’s roundup, but today I want to focus a bit on the most common complaint levied against PAS in this election cycle - namely that they are “monopolizing” the EU lane1.
Last week the Carnegie Endowment’s Russia and Eurasia center put out 2 interesting articles about Moldova. Both are in English and both are well worth a read.
Consolidating Power, Losing Ground: Moldova Risks Repeating Past Mistakes Ahead of Fall Elections by Balázs Jarábik
Domestic Failures Haunt Moldova’s Pro-EU Party as Election Looms by Vladimir Solovyov
Both articles look forward to the upcoming elections with trepidation and criticism of Moldova’s PAS government. I don’t agree with all of the analysis here, but this article won’t be some point by point critique2. I think that both pieces do a really good job of highlighting the criticisms of, and anxieties around PAS going into this election - specifically the fact that they are currently the only viable pro-EU force.
When we get closer to the election I plan to do a series looking at the electoral programs of each major party and analyzing their campaigns. That’s still some weeks off and we can’t really say for sure who all the competitors will be yet. We do know PAS though, the Party of Action and Solidarity founded by Maia Sandu and currently the dominant force in parliament. I want to look at what the party is and where it’s come from through the lens of the main worries and criticisms highlighted in these articles. So let’s dive in.