“You don’t change a captain in the middle of a storm,” one political analyst said after President Maia Sandu’s pro-EU governing party secured a majority in a pivotal parliamentary vote, fending off Moscow’s bid to sway the outcome.
(…) But those attempts fell short, according to Florent Parmentier, general secretary of the Centre for Political Research at Sciences Po and a longtime Moldova observer.
He said that PAS’s overwhelming victory could be attributed to “a sense of duty felt by many within the electorate.” Citing the country’s turbulent economy and tenuous security, he added: “You don’t change a captain in the middle of a storm.”
(…) “Among the six members of the Eastern Partnership, only Moldova can be a place where the EU can deliver and show that it’s delivering,” Parmentier argued.
(…) Meanwhile, for Parmentier, there is, indeed, a risk in Brussels betting on a “team” by throwing its support fully behind Sandu’s party, rather than backing a “principle.”
“We should support pro-EU parties in Moldova, [but] we shouldn’t let people think that, just because they are not of this opinion, they are second-tier citizens,” he said.
The article has been published here.
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