Summary

The present thesis aims at investigating if the political and institutional crisis which involved the Republic of Moldova since 2009, is the effect of an attempt to bring a real change, starting with the protests of April 7th, 2009, later named Twitter Revolution, or it is simply a substitution of the ruling elites. The argumentation develops within four chapters: the first one describes the history of Bessarabia during the XX century and the political events which took place in the Republic of Moldova after independence; the second one focuses on the crisis which started with the elections of April 5th, 2009, taking into account both political and constitutional aspects; the third one presents the cleavages of Moldovan society, above all the identity and ethno-linguistic ones; the last one, in the light of these cleavages, analyses the attitude of the main political areas, and of the respective parties, during the crisis. The analysis carried on shows the riots of April 7th, 2009, cannot be describes as a revolution, but rather, as the violent explosion of the rage of the people, disappointed by the bad situation of the country. Due to the absence of political participation in the following period, no clear project of change was elaborated, and the actions of the new ruling elite have not been monitored. The change in the government was not determined by the popular protests or by the intervention of international actors, but simply by the compliance with the constitutional provisions. The opposition between the communist party and the newly-born Alliance for European Integration cannot be explained as a fight between totalitarianism and democracy, since all parties compete in quite regular elections, neither as a contrast between pro-Europeans and pro-Russians, since all of them are now oriented toward the West; moreover, no party tried to promote real liberal values with its action. As regards the communists, their main features are the moldovenist ideology and social and economic conservatism. On the other side, the parties which formed the AEI are united by anti-communism, but they are very different among themselves. The Liberal Party represents both the nationalist pro-Romanian right, and the young people who hope to obtain a change in the country. The Democratic Party is a moderate social democratic group, which promotes a civic concept of nation. The Liberal Democratic Party is a populist formation created by some oligarchs, with a conservative doctrine and a nationalist core group. On the basis of the analysis, it can be understood that the changes in the results of the three elections in the last two years are determined by two phenomena: the shift of Marian Lupu from the Communist to the Democratic Party, and the control of the mass media and administrative resources by the new party of power, the Liberal Democrats, so that now the elderly and the rural dwellers tend to vote more for it than for the communists. Now that the danger of the authoritarian rule by the communists has been eliminated, the main risks are: the establishment of an oligarchic model by Vlad Filat, todays Prime Minister, and the worsening of the ethnic conflict if a part of the government will keep taking radical nationalist positions. Hence, two main proposals are made: depoliticizing the figure of the Head of State, in order to provide a symbol of the unity of the nation and enhance patriotism on a civic basis, and a strict and constant monitoring by the EU, in order to assure the respect of the rule of law.

Keywords: Republic of Moldova, Twitter Revolution, Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM), Alliance for European Integration (AEI), political and institutional crisis, panromanianism, moldovenism, EU integration, post-Soviet transition and democratization, political cleavages, political polarization, nationalism.