MEP Siegfried Muresan: ‘If the government organizes the referendum on the same day with the elections, it will fail’

The pro-European character of a party or any political person is assessed solely on the basis of its actions, not of words, says Romanian MEP Siegfried Muresan, referring to the PDM’s failed initiative to introduce the phrase „European integration” into the Constitution.

Mr. Muresan claims that, lately, many actions of the current parliamentary majority in the Republic of Moldova and the current government have gone against the European commitments, against the agreements with the European Union and even against the values ​​and rules of good governance in Europe.

The MEP also says he no longer considers the Democratic Party of Moldova (PDM) a pro-European one starting from the autumn of 2015.

„The Democratic Party voted along with the pro-Russian socialists of President Dodon for the fall of a pro-European government in the autumn of 2015. The result of the last parliamentary elections resulted a pro-European government constituted at that time. But in the autumn of 2015, the Democratic Party along with Dodon’s Socialists led to the fall of that government”.

„And then I said that, from that moment on, for me, the Democratic Party is no longer a pro-European party, and now we see that I was right,” Mr Muresan said in an interview for Radio Free Europe.

At the same time, the MEP noted that the politicians who wanted to use the referendum in their own interest have always failed, which also applies to the Republic of Moldova.

„And there are more examples. In the UK, the British Prime Minister at that time, David Cameron,  promised to hold a referendum on Britain’s exit from the European Union, because he was certian the referendum would fail, and only to strengthen his own political stance. What happened? People voted against the prime minister, the major negative consequence is that Britain is leaving the European Union and the prime minister left the day after the referendum.”

„We have also seen this in Romania, where there was a referendum organized around a topic that was important for some people, and not that important for other people –  namely the introduction in the Constitution of the very clear specification that the family is founded on marriage between a man and a woman.”

„The people felt very clearly that this referendum was a tool used by Liviu Dragnea, who is the chairman of the Social Democratic Party, a party from the same political family with the Democratic Party. Liviu Dragnea is a criminal, convicted several times, a recidivist. And people understood that if he does something, then it is for the benefit of the thieves, but it is not for the benefit of honest people. People have understood that PSD will use that referendum in their own interest and personal interest of Mr. Dragnea and people did not participate in the referendum.”

„So the same thing will happen in the Republic of Moldova, because Moldovan citizens are just as clever as the Romanians on the other side of the Prut. I am sure that if the government will try to trick people into something, namely to hold a referendum on the same day as the election to increase the chances of the ruling party in the elections, I am sure the government will fail. People are smarter, Romanians in Romania have proved it two weeks ago, and I am sure that the Bessarabian Romanians are not different from Romanians on the other side of the Prut,” Muresan said.

The draft law concerning the compeltion of the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova with provisions establishing the European integration as a strategic development objective of the country could not get the necessary number of votes. The PL, PLDM and PCRM parties announced that they would not support the project and left the room before voting, and PSRM did not vote for the initiative.

Parliament Speaker Andrian Candu said that „the possibility of holding a referendum on European integration” will be examined.