Moldovan PM Filat might bring Communists into government
Chisinau / Moldova.ORG/ -- In his blog, Graham Watson, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from the United Kingdom, rapporteur on Moldova, stated the following about his meeting with Moldova's Prime Minister Vladimir Filat:
"...On Wednesday I met Moldova’s prime minister Vlad Filat to discuss progress in bringing his country closer to the EU. He has reformed his democratic ‘Alliance for European Integration’ coalition but lacks enough votes to install a President. I fear he is tempted to bring the Communists into government, which would not go down at all well in Brussels..."
This might be nothing unusual, if Filat would have shared about his negotiations with the communists with his colleagues of the governing coalition – the Democratic Party and the Liberal Party.
On Friday, February 11, the opposition Party of Communists’ leader, ex-president Vladimir Voronin, confirmed to the local press in Moldova that he negotiated with Vladimir Filat recently in order to find a solution to elect the president of the country. Voronin added that a new coalition between his party and Filat’s party would bring stability to Moldova. Also on Friday, Filat admitted that he had negotiations with Voronin when speaking to local reporters.
Both Speaker Marian Lupu, who is also Moldova’s acting president, and Mihai Ghimpu, head of the Liberal Party, were surprised by this news, stating they were unaware that their colleague of the coalition had secret negotiations with the communists.
After early parliamentary elections held on November 28, 2010, the EU, the United States, civil society groups in Moldova have been applying pressure to prevent a party from Moldova's pro-European ranks from changing camps to form a government with the country's pro-Russia Communist Party. Initially, the Democratic Party chaired by Marian Lupu held talks with the Party of Communists, for which he was criticized by other pro-European parties, including by Vladimir Filat. Now, Filat is changing course or tactics.
Filat visited Brussels on February 9-10 to represent his Liberal Democratic Party at the European People’s Party Group meeting (EPP Group), where his party has been accepted as observer member.
During his visit Filat met European Parliament's President Jerzy Buzek, European Commission's President Jose Manuel Barroso, European Commissioner for Energy Gunther Oettinger, and EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Fule. Besides, Graham Watson, other two MEPs - Adrian Severin, Joseph Daul - met Vladimir Filat and his delegation. There were no public statements from other EU officials about Filat's intention to accommodate the communists and, eventually, include them into the government of Moldova in return for their votes to elect the president and to secure stability for the government for four years.
The Moldovan Prime minister was accompanied in his visit to Belgium by his adviser Iulian Fruntasu and Foreign Minister Iurie Leanca (both members of the Liberal Democratic Party), as well as by Deputy Prime Minister Eugen Carpov who is the senior government official engaged in the Transnistrian conflict resolution process and a former ambassador to EU during previous Communist government.
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