Deep Dive: Party Platforms and Promises

A look at what political parties promise and how they see the future of Moldova

Welcome back to “Deep Dives” at Moldova Matters! In this format, we look at an important issue of the moment and dig a bit deeper into it. The goal is to try and provide some context and understanding for an issue that maybe only gets cursory reporting. As with the Weekly Roundup my goal is to provide understanding on an issue and not to simply express my opinions on it. That said, while this is not an op-ed, I sometimes inject my own analysis on an issue and make a point of pointing that out. Enjoy!

So today we are going to dive deep into the party programs of the leading players in the upcoming July 11th Parliamentary elections in Moldova. In case you want a quick refresher on Moldovan politics before diving in check out these previous Moldova Matters articles.

Explainer: How does Moldova’s Government Work? - for a refresher on how the elections work and how a Government is formed after the elections. 

Glossary of Moldovan Politics - for a refresher on the main political parties and other need to know terms and ideas. 

What is a Party Program?

In Moldovan politics, as in most democracies, parties and candidates produce a program of action, or party platform, describing what they want to do if elected. In parliamentary democracies like Moldova this is an outline of the party’s priorities and could serve to indicate how they plan to govern IF they were to win an absolute majority in Parliament. Since it is extremely rare in Moldova for a party to win an absolute majority, the party program is just the first of two important programs in an election. The second is the “Government Program” which is compiled and presented to parliament by the party or parties that form a Government, either alone or in coalition. If two parties form a coalition, they merge their programs based on which party takes which ministry and so forth. So it’s important to realize that while these are the promises of one party, they are rarely very binding as this is only one step in a long process of getting to power. 

In our Deep Dive today we are going to step through the major political issues such as the economy, infrastructure and corruption and take a look at what each party plans. In order to keep things of a manageable length we will focus primarily on the Action and Solidarity Party PAS, and the Block of Communists and Socialists, since these two parties are expected to play by far the largest roles in the new government. That said, we will also look at the smaller parties a bit when they have something particularly interesting to say on an issue or it falls within their main area of focus. But first we will try and answer….

How do the Parties Approach their Programs?

A party program is not something that is a form paper. There is no set structure or set of issues and as you will see the various parties approach this messaging tactic very differently. One thing that is common for almost all the parties is that they don’t really expect people to read their program. This is a one stop shop for all their issues, but on the campaign trail candidates and parties will focus on one part or another based on their audience. Here’s a quick roundup of the party’s programs and their presentation. 

Party of Action and Solidarity PAS

The PAS Party Program is clearly a messaging document that is meant to be read by the electorate and clearly explain what the party wants to do. Everywhere in the document is the PAS Electoral Slogan “Let the Good Times Begin.” Firstly, PAS details a forward looking vision and describes what “good times” means and their top priorities for getting Moldova to a better future. Then, this message is related to each issue - “Good times for farmers,” “Good times for businesses,” “Good times for the retired,” etc. Under each topic heading you have their key initiatives, rarely more than 5, that they want to implement to see this future happen. The program deals with complicated and technical issues but in an approachable way. For anyone interested, it’s worth a read or skim through with the help of google translate. We’ll go through some key points below. 

Block of Communists and Socialists

The Party Program for the Block of Communists and Socialists (who we will just call the Socialists from now on) is a monster of a document. The online version is about as unaproachable as a web designer could make it as it is a huge 45 page PDF file that is embedded in the website. It has those old fashioned PDF plugins that make you click to flip through the pages that turn and make it look like you are reading a book. When you download it, the whole thing is in 18+ point font and isn’t much easier to read offline. All of this implies either a very dated approach to IT, or that they really don’t expect many people to try and read their program at all. Or both. 

In the introduction to the program we get a fairly apocalyptic vision for the current state of the country. It reminds strongly of Donald Trump’s “American Carnage” speech using similar language such as “the swamp” and explaining that the country has been on a devastating path since 2009. Everything is worse since 2009. Everything. Everywhere. Schools, roads, natural disasters are worse and the government does less about them. Everything. 

Once you dig into the document, you find that they use a consistent format in the 45 pages and across issues. Each issue area starts out with a scholarly introduction filled with numbers and figures as to how bad things are. Specifically, time and again we see two major turning points that put the country down the wrong path - the fall of the Soviet Union and 2009, the fall of Voronin. If we read this as a “Make Moldova Great Again” document we clearly see the goal is undoing at least the events of 2009 which sent Moldova on a European trajectory. Following this analysis and historical nostalgia the program produces a set of technical solutions also in a very data heavy manner. 

All told, this program was written in a mish-mash of technical research and a persuasion through fear style. It also just ends rather suddenly after providing an education statistic without a conclusion. It’s fair to say that this platform is a true merger of the Socialist and Communist parties with a very heavy hand from Voronin who focused on his past fall from power. But it is not clear who it is exactly written for. 

Other Parties

Union of Unionists AUR - The AUR party program is split into two sections. The first, and arguably more important is their manifesto for Union with Romania which sets out their proposed mechanism of union as well as their timeline. Specifically, they state that they plan full union of the two states in 2025. Boldly, they simply declare that in the elections in that year, AUR will win an absolute constitutional majority in both Moldovan and Romanian Parliaments and then will unite the countries. The platform continues with a set of more technical reforms that they will propose as a minority party in this coming parliament in order to prepare the ground for union. Surprisingly, given the bold assertiveness of the manifesto, this platform is quite grounded and filled with practical ideas. It’s only around half a page long however. 

Renato Usatii Block - In introducing his block’s platform, Renato Usatii begins with the line “I have a dream!” and then quickly points out that no one ever reads these platforms. Fair point. But after this brief introduction and much populist language about being the first in a generation to actually keep promises, the platform that follows is detailed and quite in depth. It goes through judicial reform, health care investments, even garbage collection issues. 

Shor Party - The Shor party platform is the shortest of the parties that have any credible chance of getting into parliament. It briefly outlines the need to develop a stronger welfare state with free schools and better pensions. Ironically, for the man who is still in hiding for stealing one billion dollars from the Moldovan state, it also calls for an “equitable distribution of wealth” to support the poor. 

Deep Dive into the Issues

The Economy

Almost every party started their platforms with an economic program. Here are some main ideas and a note on how the parties approached the issue. 

The Socialist plan for the Economy

The Socialist economic plan is totally focused on re-industrialization. It spends lots of time talking about how things were much better in 1989 and in 2009 when there were more rural factories and they say the economy was more productive. In order to return to these better times, the Socialists propose creating industrial hubs around the country driven by state investment. These will be free economic zones driven by a “State Fund for Industrial Development” that will be funded by domestically issued bonds. Further financing will come from Moldova joining the Eurasion Development Bank and creating deeper cooperation with the Russian led Eurasian Economic Union. 

No mention is made of how domestic bonds will fund this or how they will work generally. Overall the approach to the economy is a return to Soviet style rural factories and strong integration with Russia and the various Russian led Eurasion structures. No mention of Europe as a development partner or export market is made at all.

PAS - “Good Times for Entrepreneurs”

The PAS vision for economic development is fully driven by the idea of creating a level playing field for business to develop. They stress the need for clear, transparent laws that are fairly enforced. The plan talks about reforming state agencies so that they promote business and economic development rather than stifle it through corruption and bureaucracy. And the plan speaks of judicial reform and de-monopolization of sectors of the economy that have been captured by corrupt interests. Further, PAS notes that the pandemic has crippled sections of the economy and that their Parliamentary faction has been pushing for state support for months to support salaries, guarantee loans, provide rent relief and more. 

Specifically, the program calls for reining in abusive and corrupt inspectors. Creating conditions for banks to lend by respecting the rights of borrowers and debtors. Radically simplifying the system of invoicing and accounting that prevents small companies from easily doing business. And reviewing the overall tax system with an eye towards structural changes to spurr reinvestment and growth. 

Other Parties

AUR - The AUR program envisions a national program for young entrepreneurs that would provide non-reimbursable grants of $20,000 to people wanting to start a new company and exempting them from all taxes for 1 year. They further want to reduce VAT tax to 15% overall (currently 20%) and reduce all payroll taxes by 35%. Additionally, they would have a special low tax regime for companies with less than 3 employees. In their ½ page program this is only 2 bullet points but they managed to pack a lot of concrete ideas into that… except how to pay for it. 

Block Renato Usatii - Much of the Usatii plan is macro economic in nature. He proposes massive state intervention in the economy in the form of direct industrial lending and investment. Additionally, the program suggests that Moldova should no longer take loans and grants from the EU and IMF but instead use the roughly $2 billion dollars in the national bank’s currency reserves for investment (something that all economists and the National Bank say would be disastrous and that Mr. Dodon also flirts with from time to time). He also proposes to review the national debt and conduct referendums loan by loan whereby the population can choose to default on various obligations. Hidden in this populist agenda is one gem however - reforming the banking sector to give small business loans based on their evaluation of the company’s business plan. Currently banks require the companies to cover the loan with 90-150% collateral pledges which actually incentivizes banks to see clients default. Creating a more normal lending process is necessary and a pretty grounded suggestion compared to the rest of the plan. 

Agriculture

In addition to COVID-19, 2020 saw a major drought in Moldova. As the agricultural sector is the most important driver of the economy all parties (except Shor) had a specific policy section here. 

PAS - Good times for Farmers

The PAS program begins by stressing the need for state investment in agriculture and noting that during the brief 2019 tenure of the Maia Sandu Government they were able to negotiate increased export quotas to the EU. The program says they will build on their track record of success to further open the EU market to Moldovan goods. They also propose to increase the national farm subsidies program and prevent the state from taking small holders to court if they have fallen behind on taxes or closed their business. The program proposes to create regional high value agriculture centers to support logistics, infrastructure, packaging and more for after harvest processing in order to get food to market with fewer middle men. Finally, they pledge to crack down on the illegal monopolies that oppress farmers by controlling transportation and infrastructure or by dominating the market as a monopsony.

The Socialist Agricultural Plan 

As per their format, the Socialists begin with everything that went wrong since 2009 even noting that milk production has fallen 44% in that time. They even go so far as to note that the breaking up of the collective farms at the end of the Soviet times was a major mistake. The Socialists propose to double farm subsidies and make land consolidation easier but without any specifics. The program calls for preventing foriegn companies from buying agricultural land, something that is already illegal but often happens anyway. Finally, they identify a major problem in the agricultural sector as the lack of workers and high level of informality (working unofficially and without a contract). Interestingly, they propose the mandating of “trilateral contracts” whereby the state would be a signatory in all work contracts for farm workers. It is completely unclear how this is intended to make finding workers easier, but it is easy to see a bit of the old collective farms peak through in the policy where the state is re-injected into the agricultural sector in a big way. 

Other Parties

Usatii - The party program calls for a variety of actions like “attract foriegn investment” but only a few clear policies. One is a state run program to assist in land consolidation - a process that is extremely difficult under current law. The program also calls for a state program to support organic farming noting that Moldova could be very successful in this niche high value market. 

AUR -  The party proposes a fixed annual subsidy of 2500 lei per hectare per year to replace the current farm subsidy system. They also propose to duplicate the success of the “Prima Casa” program, which helps Moldovans buy a first home with preferential mortgages, in the form of a “first tractor” program for small farmers. Finally, they propose a set of government backed zero interest loans to farmers to buy any agricultural equipment that is produced totally or partly in Moldova. Again, 2 lines in their ½ page platform and they are filled with ideas. 

Corruption

Corruption is a major issue in Moldova and often polls as a top issue among the electorate. Most parties pledge to tackle corruption every election cycle even if they intend to fuel it instead.

The Socialist Program to Tackle Corruption

In the 45 page Socialist program the word corruption appears only once in the introduction. There they mention that corruption has gotten way worse since 2009 and people are really unhappy about it. After that there is not one policy about corruption or even a mention of it throughout the document. 

PAS On Corruption - no Good Times for Thieves

The PAS program mentions tackling corruption and supporting the rule of law in almost every section multiple times. They relate the issue to farmers, businesspeople, public sector workers and more as the major impediment to “starting the good times.” While there is not a specific sector on corruption the whole document deals with it. That said, it is worth printing the program’s Number 1 Priority here in full as the language of it is pretty direct and no work from me to paraphrase could possibly be more to the point. 

1. Justice, order and discipline

We will do justice to our country. Corrupt judges and prosecutors will be expelled from the system. Thieves will be punished and their assets will be confiscated. Officials who demand bribes or harass businessmen will be punished and fired. All state institutions will work for the people and not against them. All will be equal before the law.

Other Parties

AUR - The AUR party promises to bring the corrupt to justice and confiscate their property. They plan to do this by giving the newly created European Prosecutor jurisdiction. But there are no details. 

Usatii - Mr. Usatii’s block has a number of sections in his program involving corruption including justice reform and de-oligarchization. He proposes declaring a state of emergency and abolishing the superior court mechanisms in order to “clean out” corrupt judges. He also proposes a “presumption of guilt” for all officials who cannot prove the source of their wealth and property and for harsh prosecution and prompt confiscation. All court hearings should be publically live streamed and the property of the very wealthy should be confiscated if they cannot prove where it came from. There’s quite a bit more in that vein - basically, scorched earth and using a state of emergency to bypass and (in some cases) eliminate judicial processes in order to clean out the thieves and rebuild the system. 

The Regions and Local Infrastructure

PAS - Good Times for Villages and Cities

The PAS program for developing the regions and local infrastructure is fundamentally about devolution of financial resources and decision making to the localities. They mention that in the Maia Sandu Government in 2019 they redirected 100% of payroll taxes directly to the local governments of where people work (previously they went into a national pool and like all such taxes have a bad history of being redistributed based on political parties and patronage). PAS pledges to continue this with 50% of taxes on natural resources and 100% of road taxes to be allocated directly to the local governments. Additionally, a portion (unspecified) of business taxes would go to the localities.  The program pledges a transparent formula for the allocation of funds for road construction and to attract around 100 million dollars a year in local investment through foriegn development partners. Finally, they pledge to create a national development fund that would assist localities in co-financing projects (for example, an EU grant to build a water tower may require the town to put up 20% of the money. This fund would assist towns in paying for this co-financing). Overall, the PAS program is about transparency and devolution of power and finances to local control. 

Socialists on Infrastructure 

The Socialist plan on infrastructure leads off with a familiar line of how bad things are and then proceeds with a strong focus on water and sewage resources. They pledge to connect 70% of all residences to water by 2025 (up from current 50%) and to begin a gradual rollout of sewage systems for the towns. The program promises that all schools and kindergartens will have water, gas and sewage by 2025. They plan to create a testing and monitoring system for wells and groundwater and systems of subsidies for low income citizens to connect to gas. 

The Socialists also pledge devolution of resources saying that while towns currently rely on Chisinau for around 70% of their budget by 2025 that will be closer to 60%. This will be done by allowing independent creation of local taxes (think business registration fees) and directing 20% of income tax to local governments. They pledge to end patronage in distributing taxes by creating a formula based on population and area in a town. 

Other Parties

Usatii - Mr. Usatii’s plan does not deal very much with traditional infrastructure but does have a section titled “Moldova the Country who Defeated Garbage!” In it, he has a sweeping plan to reform dumps and waste disposal with nationwide recycling for plastic and collection of used batteries. He also proposes a new type of “environmental patrols” to work with the police to clean up parks and fine polluters. In a program that is otherwise mostly devoted to corruption and justice reform it’s an interesting segway into green policy with a laser focus on waste management.  

AUR - Like the rest of the AUR plan the infrastructure section is very to the point. They propose a national investment fund for infrastructure which would be implemented by local governments. Additionally, AUR proposes the construction of a highway connecting Iasi to Odessa passing through Chisinau and Tiraspol. And a new “Stefan Cel Mare Highway” connecting Balti - Chisinau - Cahul - Galati. No mention of pay fors exist in the plan and the whole section is shorter than this paragraph I wrote to summarize it. 

Social Policy

Note: anyone who read the recent Explainer: Does Moldova Have Left and Right Wing Parties will note how we said that no parties ever talk about inequality. Well, it looks like we jumped the gun a bit because we do have it in some party platforms if not any actual campaign rhetoric. 

Socialists on Social Policy and Inequality

Socialist social policy has a clear focus on “reducing income inequality” which they posit is a major issue for the state and, yup, has increased since 1989 and 2009. They specifically focus on the idea that on average, the top 20% has around 5.6 times the income of the bottom 20% in Moldova. If we look at the minimum wage, this means they are focusing on the idea that the top 20% has an average salary of around $900 / month take home compared to around $160 minimum wage. While this is a major gap, it’s interesting that “inequality” does not once mention the million dollar homes or land rovers and teslas that dot the capital. 

The Socialist pledge to reduce inequality includes increasing salaries for public sector employees. Lowering taxes for low and middle income workers. Cutting salaries for top managers of state enterprises. And reforming pensions so that the lowest pension is a living wage by 2025. They also note that they will continue the process of one-time bonuses for pensioners such as “Happy Easter” gifts of $15 or so that they did while in Government. 

PAS - Good Times for Families, Women and Retirees

The PAS Party program plans to increase the childbirth allowance to 10,000 lei, make paternity leave a possibility, and increase the child tax allowance. They pledge to tackle the wage gap between men and women by wage transparency and develop additional support services for victims of domestic violence. For retirees, they pledge a minimum pension of 2000 lei / month and an indexing of pensions to economic growth not simply inflation. Additionally, they pledge a full subsidization of medication for retirees and various programs for the elderly including specialized hospital wings and programs for active living and aging with dignity. Part of the way they plan to pay for this is by reducing very high pensions paid to civil servants though they do not provide a specific cap rate. 

Other Parties

Shor - The entire Shor platform is about building a welfare state but there are no real policies there. Free education, good pensions and “increasing benefits” is about as detailed as things get. 

Block Renato Usatii - Mr. Usati’s program has a very detailed social policy section that includes doubling salaries for social workers, increasing pensions to a minimum of 1500 lei, reforming criteria used to identify those in dire need and various other technical fixes. Interestingly, he proposes a 15,000 lei one time payment for families having their first child. This payment goes up to 25,000 for the 2nd child and 50,000 for the third. So while it’s not said explicitly he seems to think that strongly incentivizing larger families is key. Finally, the program section ends by saying that he will reduce the salary of the Minister of Labor to minimum wage so they can experience the life of a worker. 

Education

Socialists on Education

The Socialists education plan is focused on expanding rural education and gradually returning Moldova to a tuition free higher education system. They plan to expand preschools and create a national program for school renovation. They promise a free school lunch program for grades 1-9 and connection of all schools to hi-speed internet. Finally, they plan to discourage students from studying abroad by opening partnership programs whereby foriegn universities will open campuses in Moldova. 

PAS on Education

The PAS Party pledges the renovation of 500 kindergartens and the installation of modern toilets and cafeterias in schools across the country. They also plan to create a new national program promoting reading, science and the arts conducted through libraries, museums, theaters and houses of culture (community centers). They also pledge to implement curriculum reform and modernization to improve the quality of higher education and to update the vocational training schools. 

Other Parties

Block Renato Usatii - Mr. Usatii’s party plans to begin education reform by compelling 100% attendance at schools and fighting truancy. They go on to promise that teachers will be the highest paid professionals in the country and that curriculum reform should be a high priority at elementary schools as well as in higher and vocational education. 

Foriegn Policy

While almost no parties have specific Foriegn Policy sections in their platform, the direction is clear from their domestic policies. AUR wants integration with Romania. PAS supports a European Future and aspirations towards one day becoming an EU member. The Socialists want deeper integration into the Eurasion Customs Union and eventually joining the Eurasion Union. Usatii basically writes that none of this will solve core problems at home but if the people want to join a regional block they should approve it with a ⅔ vote in a referendum (presumably held in concurrence with his referendums to default on national debts). This election has heavy foriegn policy overtones but only in the lens of domestic policy. All parties are providing their vision of cleaning up problems at home first. 

Conclusions

Well, I can honestly say that reading all the party platforms is a strange way to spend a Sunday and I don’t recommend it. Most of the documents are written with the knowledge that almost no one reads them and no party feels particularly accountable to these promises. More important is what is being talked about in the general campaign and what is breaking through the press coverage as it will have more staying power with the voters. But with that said, we can see a few really interesting things in these platforms worth thinking about. Firstly, it is fascinating to see how much time was put into some and how little to others. The PAS platform is detailed without being overly complicated and fully rooted in their campaign promise to “Start the Good Times” in Moldova. The Communist and Socialist platform is extremely detailed but not clearly written for any voter I can understand. Usatii’s is quite detailed as well. Shor basically has no platform at all. 

Another consideration is what these platforms say in the big picture. They all talk about economics and pension reform and basic issues but the differences in approach are striking. The PAS platform is very focused on corruption and the rule of law while the Socialists barely mention these topics at all. Only the PAS platform mentions the current pandemic at all as either a past or future issue that will be important for this new parliament. Meanwhile, the Socialists approach every problem in the lens of turning back the clock to 2009 or 1989. These areas of focus show the way they approach problems more than the specific campaign promises and paint an interesting picture of how the various factions would govern. 

And finally, no one spells out how they will pay for their promises in any real detail. Naturally, no one wants to run a campaign on raising taxes or increasing foriegn debt so this isn’t a surprise. But it is interesting because the ambition and scope of all of these plans will require some hard choices or serious new revenue. 

 It seems we will have to wait for the outcome of the vote on July 11th to understand more. 

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