Coalition governance in a period of transition is inevitable, but any coalition should have a project, ex-President of Romania Emil Constantinescu said in the European Union – Moldova Forum that started in Chisinau on Tuesday evening, Info-Prim Neo reports. Emil Constantinescu took part in the first round of discussions themed “Transition to democracy in Moldova: 20 years of independence”, alongside former Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski and former Moldovan President Petru Lucinschi.
“There is no other solution than forming a coalition on the center-right, democratic side. The center-right forces that tried to replace the Communist regimes at the first stage could not come to power without coalition. They did not have the organized system of the former Communist parties. Thus, coalition is inevitable. I also headed a coalition, including in the Opposition. If the Democratic Convention of Romania that I headed in 1992 – 1996 as an alliance consisting of 17 center-right parties (together with the historical Social-Democratic Party) had not been created, nothing would have been done and Romania would have been like Belarus. Only a center-right coalition created a people's wave that changed Romania's internal and external policy course in 1996,” said Emil Constantinescu.
But a coalition has a price to pay, he stated. “There are inter-coalition disputes. No coalition can work, even in the Western states with century-old democracies, without internal conflicts. But this should not be a reason for concern. Certainty, these conflicts serve as raw material for the press. But it is the duty of the press to inform the people. Civil society should penalize these conflicts when they appear,” said Romania's ex-President.
He also said that the coalition pay a general political price. “The center-right coalitions also pay a general political price as in the next elections they are replaced by Social-Democratic parties. It happened so in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and other countries. A coalition is inevitable, but any coalition should have a project. The project is important, not the fate of a political leader,” said Emil Constantinescu.
Former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, who brought Poland into the EU and NATO, underlined the importance of the union of the political parties in achieving key objectives. “We achieved results in modernizing the country because there was political consensus on the most important problems in Poland. We were different, but spoke the same language,” said Kwasniewski. He stressed that the EU can strengthen its position at geopolitical and economic levels only by extending to the East and this process covers Moldova as well.
Ex-President of Moldova Petru Lucinschi believes that Moldova's path to democratization is more difficult owing to the lack of state mentality and political experience. The countries in Central and Eastern Europe knew what they have to do after the Socialist camp fell apart, but Moldova has a spiritual project instead of a state one. “We did not pay for the independence we obtained because of geopolitical circumstances and we pay now,” he said, adding the Transnistrian conflict is a major obstacle.
The EU– Moldova Forum has been organized by the Foreign Policy Association and the Institute for Eastern Studies of Warsaw. It brought together politicians, diplomats and important businessmen from Moldova and abroad. Prime Minister Vlad Filat and his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk will be taking part in the forum today, Mach 30.
