Loss of faith in Moldova drives emigration, Furtună says
Moldova Mare leader Victoria Furtună has criticised the government’s policies, arguing that they have driven working-age people abroad and deepened the country’s economic problems. Speaking on The Main Thing, she told Nina Dimoglo that young people were leaving not only because of low salaries or a lack of jobs, but because they had lost their historical and spiritual connection with their homeland.
According to Furtună, the current generation has grown up in an information environment that devalues national identity and presents the country’s future exclusively in bleak terms. She argued that citizens would not work for their country unless they first valued their own identity.
“Anyone who tells me now, ‘Listen, people are starving, and you are talking again about traditions, faith and loving your country’ — no citizen of the Republic of Moldova will do anything for this country, for this sacred land, for as long as they do not love themselves as a Moldovan, a Gagauz born in Moldova or a Russian born in Moldova… someone who knows history and wants to develop here, in Moldova,” she said.
Furtună also said many young people were now ashamed of their Moldovan identity and language. She presented this as evidence that the loss of faith in Moldova begins with a rejection of national belonging.
“Look at our young people! Tell one of them that he is Moldovan and speaks Moldovan. He will lash out at you. The second thing he will say afterwards is: ‘I will leave this country because there are no opportunities here,’” she said.
Family pressures reinforce a bleak outlook
The Moldova Mare leader argued that television and daily family life were primarily responsible for creating a negative image of the country. Young people see reports of companies closing and citizens being oppressed, while their experiences at home reinforce the same atmosphere.
Children hear mothers worrying about paying for university or school and fathers wondering how they will pay household bills. Furtună said this forces children to think prematurely about adult problems, their future and whether the country can offer them anything.
She believes young people lack both a “historical connection” and confidence in their ability to influence the country’s development. Instead of imagining a future in Moldova, she said, every second young person thinks about leaving.
“They do not have that historical connection or the belief that they can be the person who changes Moldova’s course of development and faith. Every young person from Moldova should think: ‘You will see, I will be the one who changes things. I will come with different projects, work my way up, become prime minister here in Moldova, change the strategy and develop this country,’” Furtună said.
Opposition offers no convincing alternative
Furtună also acknowledged that the current opposition had failed to offer voters a credible alternative. Although many people were dissatisfied with PAS, she said they did not know which political force they could trust instead.
“People now say: ‘Listen, yes, we understand that those from PAS are bad. We can see what state they have left our families and our country in. But who do we turn to?’ They have not found or identified the bright minds, professionals, doctors of science and historians who could offer a formula for resolving, for example, the problems with water and gas,” she said.
A substantial part of the interview was devoted to comparisons with the Soviet past. Rejecting attempts by politicians and opinion leaders to portray the Soviet Union exclusively negatively, Furtună recalled that her mother had a job and received a flat, while the family went on holiday twice a year. She added that her own education and extracurricular courses had been free.
“My parents were happy. We relaxed in parks, and in the evenings we talked about our achievements,” she recalled.
Government urged to restore confidence
At the end of the interview, Furtună questioned why ordinary citizens were expected to find solutions that should be developed by the government and president. Addressing Dimoglo, she asked:
“What do we do in the kitchen today? What do you do in the kitchen today, Nina? Do you think about who else you can talk to so that you can get involved in the process and change something in the Republic of Moldova, when the government and the president should be thinking about that?”
Furtună urged the authorities not to transfer responsibility for change to ordinary citizens. She maintained that emigration and economic and social problems would continue to worsen until the government offered young people a credible development strategy and restored respect for the country’s history.
Without renewed faith in Moldova and its future, she argued, economic reforms alone would achieve little. Her message was that young people need to believe they can build a future at home rather than seeing departure as their only realistic option.
