Foreign Policy Association together with Friedrich­Ebert-Stiftung offer you a newsletter on foreign policy and European integration issues of the Republic of Moldova. The newsletter is part of the “Foreign Policy Dialogue” joint Project. NEWSLETTER MONTHLY BULLETIN JUNE 2021 NR.6(184) Synthesis and Foreign Policy Debates The newsletter is developed by Mădălin Necșuțu, editor-coordinator TOPICS OF THE EDITION: 1. Mădălin Necșuțu, Balkan Insight correspondent: “How foreign policy is viewed by the main electoral contestants” 2. Editorial by Victor Chirilă, Executive Director of the Association for Foreign Policy: “Give the country a good domestic policy, and you will have a suitable foreign policy” News in Brief: The Deputy Director-General for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Katarína Mathernová, and the President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, explained in a joint press conference on June 4th the conditions under which the recently promised 600 million euros by the European Commission for the economic recovery of the Republic of Moldova will reach the country. Specifically, the European official said that the allocation of money in Brussels depends on continued reforms, especially in the field of justice, the fight against corruption and progress in investigating the 2014 theft of the billion dollars, which has not been clarified yet. The two officials also explained about the areas in which this money will be invested. Thus, the largest amount will be used for infrastructure development, energy interconnection with the European space via Romania and environmental projects aimed at conserving the Dniester. These will total 230 million euros. Another 220 million euros will be invested in managing public finances, while 100 million euros will go to the development of small and medium-sized enterprises and local communities. Last but not least, 25 million euros is earmarked for the education and justice system reforms. The members of the Ialoveni Territorial Organization of the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova(PSRM) announced on June 12the their withdrawal from the party. In a message published on a social network, they have invoked the decision of the PSRM leaders to ally with the communists in a joint electoral bloc in the early parliamentary elections of July 11th, but also expressed their disagreement with the latest decisions taken by the Socialists, which in their opinion had“a single purpose, to destroy the country’s economy and create new criminal schemes.”“The coalition with the party of the oligarch Shor, the creation of the electoral bloc with the one who humiliated us through aberrant and offensive statements. We do not agree with the diversionist actions of the Chicu government supported by the PSRM- Shor majority. Most of the laws were voted with a single purpose- to destroy the country’s economy and to create new criminal schemes... The PSRM has become an antisocial, opportunistic party with a kleptomaniac leadership”, this is how the authors have motivated their gesture of leaving the PSRM. The Chisinau authorities have announced the opening of three polling stations in the Transnistrian separatist region, without having effective control over these polling stations. Out of the 44 stations for Moldovan citizens in Transnistria, two will be open in Bender and one in the village of Corjova. Chisinau has sent two letters- one signed by the Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration, Olga Cebotari – addressing the so-called Foreign Minister of Tiraspol, Vitali Ignatiev. Another letter was signed by Ion Solonenco, head of the Chisinau delegation to the Unified Control Commission, and four other members of the Commission, to representatives of Tiraspol, Moscow, Kiev and the OSCE, calling on ensuring an adequate and legal voting framework in the July 11th parliamentary elections. The SIS has previously warned that the legal framework cannot be ensured in these sections across the Dniester. Foreign policy visions: Actors, chances and electoral programs for early parliamentary elections The race for the 101 parliamentary seats, which will take place on July 11 th , is a quite complicated equation. There is a number of already established political actors, but also a few new parties that could be part of the future legislative configuration. The opinion polls are showing at present an ambiguous landscape with several possible scenarios. As before, there are two certain options- one is statist and pro-Russian and the other- pro-European. It remains to be seen who will be the actors to join the two currents in the future parliament. According to the polls, around 6-7 political parties or blocs are credited with Sursa: Chicago News real chances of crossing the electoral threshold of 5% for solo parties or 7% for blocs of two parties. While the Electoral Bloc of Communists and Socialists (BeCS) is again marching on geopolitical messages using the Soviet myth of the“besieged city”, the Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) has chosen to go for anti-corruption messages. Monthly newsletter, No.6(184), June 2021 111 Bucuresti St., Chisinau, MD-2012, Republic of Moldova, Tel.+373 855830 Website: fes-moldova.org. E-mail:fes@fes-moldova.org