REFERENDUM 2024 // Moldovan president urges citizens to participate in referendum

Chisinau, 6 September /MOLDPRES/ - President Maia Sandu has urged the citizens to massively participate in the next October referendum, in order to put down the way they want in the Constitution. ‘’We commit to work quite seriously, in order to join the European Union very quickly, as we do not have 10 years at our disposal.’’ The head of state has made statements to this effect at a TV programme.   

The president said that, in the last years, Moldova had advanced very much on the European integration path and the referendum was meant to bring clarity on this subject.  

„We have made quite serious steps on the European integration way. We reached the phase in which we started the negotiations, but we need clarity, so that no one or another politician says that this is the process of Maia Sandu or is the process of the Action and Solidarity Party. We need clarity. This is the most important decision since the proclamation of Independence so far and as many people as possible must participate in this decision,’’ Maia Sandu said.   

The Moldovan president also said that the idea of the European integration was not about a party and was not about a political colour, but is a country project. ‘’This is a national idea and I will not be the one to sign the document on accession to the European Union.  Maybe this will be one of the politicians who presently stay aside and call themselves Europeans. This is a project of our generation. This is a project of our times and it is the only project which can give us the certainty of peace and certainty of modernization and development of this country. The Moldovans are the ones who must decide their fate,’’ the president also said.     

The head of state noted that there were also eventual risks of rigging the elections and the state’s institutions had made warnings on this subject. Yet, ‘’now, it depends on each of us whether we will let these risks be stronger.’’

„Some institutions work much better than in the past and we should appreciate this, but still not all of them work and even if they would work, we see this also in more developed countries with strong institutions, where the Kremlin’s misinformation and propaganda comes and influences the results of the elections. Just as we used to say: we can be and we are stronger; it is about our life, our destiny, the destiny of our children and we must make a greater effort. First of all, to come to vote in a large number, in order to combat all this misinformation. And in the discussions which we have with the friends, neighbours, colleagues, family members and on social networks, as we see there very much space for this, but I repeat, this is up to us. We are not at the first experience. We had such problems in the past, but we know about these risks and there is no a magical solution. There is no policy which we can enforce and which is to solve this problem. We can everybody contribute to these elections to be in favour of the Moldovans, in the favour of Moldova and not in favour  of those who finance lies and misinformation.  The authorities take into account scenarios for this period and they learned from the experience of the previous ballots. The institutions every day analyze these risks and they every day undertake measures in order to reduce their impact. But what the state is doing is not enough; it is important that all of us take care and make sure that the decision which will define our fate should be a correct one.  Especially if we talk about the referendum; it is not about the next four years, but about the next decades. And all of us want this decision to be taken on the basis of the truth,’’ the head of state added.       

The elections for the office of Moldova’s president and a republican constitutional referendum on the country’s accession to the European Union will be held on 20 October 2024. At the referendum, the citizens will have to answer the question: ‘’Do you support the amendment of the Constitution for Moldova’s accession to the European Union?’’  

The results of the plebiscite will represent ground, if most residents answer affirmatively to this question, for the amendment of Moldova’s Constitution, so that the European integration’s desideratum should be compulsory for all governances due to come.