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MoldovaPolitical Parties
In 1993 more than twenty political parties and
movements were
registered in Moldova. Until 1990 the Communist Party of
Moldavia
(CPM) was the dominant political force in the republic. It
had
controlled the administrative, economic, and cultural
affairs of
the Moldavian SSR from its establishment until 1990.
During that
period, CPM officials monopolized virtually all
politically
significant government positions. However, once democratic
elections were decided upon, the party's power
disintegrated
swiftly. The CPM was formally banned in August 1991,
following
the abortive August coup d'état against Soviet president
Gorbachev, but former communists continue to participate
actively
in politics through their membership in a variety of
successor
organizations.
In the wake of the 1990 elections, the Moldovan Popular
Front, founded in 1989 and consisting of an association of
independent cultural and political groups, moved into a
commanding position in the country's political life. It
emerged
as an advocate of increased autonomy from the Soviet Union
and of
the rights of the Moldavian SSR's ethnic Romanian
population.
Popular Front delegates were able to dominate proceedings
in the
Supreme Soviet and to select a government made up of
individuals
who supported its agenda. The Popular Front was well
organized
nationally, with its strongest support in the capital and
in
areas of the country most heavily populated by ethnic
Romanians.
Once the organization was in power, however, internal
disputes
led to a sharp fall in popular support, and it fragmented
into
several competing factions by early 1993. In February
1993, the
Popular Front was reformed as the Christian Democratic
Popular
Front (CDPF).
Several other parties, primarily composed of ethnic
Romanians, were organized after 1990. The largest and most
influential of these ethnically based parties is the
Democratic
Agrarian Party of Moldova, which is a coalition of former
communists and moderate to status-quo supporters of
Moldovan
statehood and closer economic ties with Russia. The
party's
support comes mainly from the rural populace, economic
conservatives, and ethnic minorities opposed to
reunification
with Romania. The Democratic Agrarian Party of Moldova won
a
majority of the votes in the 1994 parliamentary election.
A much smaller but still influential political group is
the
Social Democratic Party of Moldova. Most of the Social
Democrats'
leaders originally participated in the Popular Front but
later
formed their own organization in response to what they
perceived
as the increasingly nationalistic position of that party.
The
Social Democrats are multiethnic, and their constituency
consists
mainly of educated professional and managerial groups.
Their
support is strongest in the republic's capital.
Another independent formation committed to promoting a
less
nationalistic agenda for the republic, the Democratic
Party for
the Rebirth and Prosperity of Moldova (PDRPM), was formed
in late
1990. The PDRPM draws its support primarily from among
ethnic
Romanian intellectuals and is active primarily in the
capital.
At the other extreme of the political spectrum is the
National Christian Party (NCP). The NCP is more expressly
nationalistic than the Popular Front and its other
competitors--
Congress of the Intelligentsia (which is a component of
the
Congress of Peasants and Intellectuals, a bloc in the 1994
elections), the Democratic Party, and the Democratic Labor
Party-
-and it campaigned openly for reunification with Romania
during
the 1994 election. Other parties active in the 1994
campaign for
the Parliament were the Reform Party, the
Yedinstvo/Socialist
Bloc, the Republican Party, the Democratic Labor Party,
the Green
Alliance, the Women's Association of Moldova, and the
Victims of
Totalitarian Repression.
In late 1993, former Prime Minister Valeriu Muravschi,
along
with several other leading members of Parliament unhappy
with the
direction of policy under the existing government, formed
yet
another party, the Socialist Workers' Party, in order to
counter
what they saw as the excessively conservative influence of
the
Democratic Agrarian Party of Moldova. Non-Romanian ethnic
communities have also formed political organizations
representing
their interests. In the early transition period, the most
influential of these was the Yedinstvo-Unitatea
Intermovement.
Yedinstvo, whose members include not only Russians but
also
Ukrainians, Bulgarians, and other Russian-speaking
residents of
the republic, is politically conservative in its support
of the
pre-1990 status quo. Based primarily in Transnistria, it
is
strongly pro-Russian. In Parliament, its positions are
represented by the Conciliere legislative club.
Yedinstvo emerged in 1988 from the mobilization of
Russianspeaking workers responding to efforts to alter the
republic's
language laws and demote the status of the Russian
language.
During the transition period, Yedinstvo was the most
effective
and influential minority nationalist organization. Its
representatives walked out of the first session of the
democratically elected Moldavian Supreme Soviet in 1990.
In local
elections, its adherents won control over local and
raion
governments throughout Transnistria.
Gagauz Halkî (Gagauz People) is a second pivotal
minority
political group, formed to represent Moldova's population
of
approximately 153,000 Gagauz. Like the Russian-speaking
community
in Transnistria, with whom they had been close political
allies,
Gagauz nationalists gained control over local government
in the
five southern raioane, where their numbers continue
to be
concentrated. Like the Transnistrians, the Gagauz declared
themselves sovereign in 1990.
Data as of June 1995
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