Moldovans rather have a distorted image of what the European Union represents. This perception is overwhelmingly shaped not by individual opinion, but by the rhetoric and positioning that the Russian Federation has had over the years towards the EU. This is what the data also show.
For example, in 2006-2008, support for the idea of Moldova’s accession to the EU exceeded 70% of the population. Once the Russian leadership began to change its rhetoric towards the EU and the West, a moment marked by Vladimir Putin’s famous speech at the Munich conference, both in the Russian Federation and in the Republic of Moldova, the population’s attitude towards the EU began to steadily decline.
Then came the myth of the recreation of the Soviet Union under the aegis of the Customs/Economic/Eurasian Union project – a title that still confuses many Moldovans. The more this entity, inspired and copied even in name from the Europeans, became more aggressively promoted by Russia, the more the Moldovan public opinion became more confused and the support for the EU decreased, reaching about 40% between 2011 and 2016.
Thus, it is no wonder why often the opinion of Moldovans about what the EU stands for is not actually based on personal experience or that of family members in the diaspora, but on speculative and intentionally disseminated ideas by politicians and opinion makers inside the country and Russia. This is particularly damaging when our self-image as individuals and as a country is intentionally distorted to benefit Russia (or another state), affecting and distorting our collective beliefs and values as a people, as a society.
A remarkable example is the discourse of some political figures about the so-called traditional values in the context of Moldova’s rapprochement to the EU. On the one hand, they suggest that Moldova does not belong to the European cultural space, therefore we, Moldovans, are not Europeans and should not strive towards EU integration. On the other hand, we are told that we, as a people, have “traditional values” that we will lose if we integrate into the European Union. And we are told this so often that, according to sociological studies, 4 out of 6 people actually believe it.
Obviously, these malicious opinion makers do not bring concrete arguments, they do not explain with examples what the term values or traditional values would mean, what are, in fact, the values of our people, but only speculate, taking advantage of the fact that values themselves are abstract issues, devoid of content for the population, which most Moldovans do not understand.
Therefore, a large part of the population, when they hear the term “traditional values”, immediately think of the traditions and customs of a people, of a country. This is far from being the case. Similarly, if you ask 10 people “what are the values that represent us, Moldovans?”, 3 out of 10 will be able to list a few.
The same will be true if we ask them what those European values are and why they think they are so different from ours.
Most frequently, when we encounter the phrase “traditional values” in Russian political discourse, they are defined in contrast with post-modern and Western values, emphasizing in particular how dysfunctional and inappropriate these European values are for us.
But specialists who actually understand and study the term explain that traditional values are mainly: “abstinence from sex before or outside marriage; limiting women’s participation in the public sphere; banning abortion; and heterosexual marriage”.
Going deeper into the analysis of the concept, a state whose society practices traditional values shows a low degree of tolerance for abortion, divorce and homosexuality. In these societies, the presence and authority of men in economic and political life predominates. The family is an important aspect of traditionalism, particularly in terms of fertility and procreation. The family is seen as an important tool for the survival of society, hence the rejection of divorce and the implacable stance against abortion.
In many traditionalist countries, religion is strongly emphasized, playing a central role in individual and political life. Research shows that societies that embrace traditional values often tend to be authoritarian.
Returning to the Republic of Moldova, in discussions with several Moldovans, they frequently pointed to only two of the characteristics listed above: family and marriage between a man and a woman.
But how open would Moldovans be to living in a truly traditionalist society, where women’s duties are limited to having children, abortion is forbidden, Sunday Mass is compulsory, there is no freedom to divorce, and any relationship outside marriage is punishable?
Yes, the population of the Republic of Moldova does not tolerate sexual minorities and does not want to have contact with them. It is against same-sex marriages or certain rights for minorities, but I cannot imagine a Moldova where our hard-won freedoms and rights are curtailed by religious or political institutions.
For Moldovans, the family is truly a value, but from the perspective of solidarity and mutual support for its members. At the same time, every Moldovan wants to have the right to start a family when and how he or she wants and not to have certain restrictions imposed on him or her regarding divorce, abortion or the number of children they have to conceive.
In spite of what is suggested, Moldova is not a society of traditional values, any more than the Russian Federation is a society of traditional values.
Instead, each EU country has taken on certain aspects of traditionalism that society chooses to accept or not. The EU promotes equality between all members of society, whether you are male or female, Orthodox Christian or Muslim, Russian-speaking or Gagauz. Whether you are rich or poor, you are free to marry and divorce. Whether you are a man or a woman, you have the right to be president.
Yes, at the level of the Member States of the European Union, there is a desire and a tendency for people of the same sex to be accepted and tolerated in our societies, to have the same rights to marry as everyone else, to be able to hold public office without being discriminated against because they are different from the rest of us. But that does not mean that the EU is forcing EU countries to accept same-sex marriage if the societies in those countries do not accept it.
Nor is it forcing changes to the constitutions of EU Member States to redefine marriage and family. EU Member States such as Bulgaria, Hungary, and Croatia have still defined marriage in their country’s constitution as between a man and a woman. And in Poland the church plays an active role in social life.
But unfortunately, for the good of our society, Moldovans tend to accept what they are told about the EU rather than what they see with their own eyes. At a meeting with locals in the south of the country, I asked the more than 30 participants which of them had been to Europe and whether they had actually seen on the streets in the EU “the moral depravity we keep hearing about or LGBTQ+ people”.
The response from people who have been in the EU was that no, the streets of Europe are not full of “homosexuals”, and they did not draw attention to whether there is some depraved behavior. Instead, those who had never been to an EU country began to raise their voices to assert themselves in the discussion and explain how they had heard that “gays are everywhere”; that children are being taken away from their parents and given to homosexuals; or how “how to be gay” is being taught everywhere in schools. What we tend to do as a society, as individuals, is to apply one or a few exceptional cases to the whole of the European Union and promote rumors, to stir up excitement and shock. We like gossip, exclusives coming from ‘sources’ and news with effect.
We Moldovans do not want to be treated as second-class people. We want to be respected, to enjoy the same rights and freedoms as EU citizens. We want to have a fair justice system that treats us all equally regardless of who we are or how much money we have. But at the same time, we don’t like religious and ethnic minorities, we don’t tolerate sexual minorities, and we don’t want to give away anything we get or compromise on certain things we don’t like. In a just society, all citizens should have access to the same rights and freedoms. In a hypocritical society, we just want benefits without giving anything in return.
And the European Union, through the values it has assumed in its founding documents, is aiming for a just society. More specifically, it aims for us all to live in a state with functioning institutions, to be respected as human beings, to have our human dignity respected, even if we are sick, disabled or elderly. The EU aims for us all to have the freedom to marry or not, to vote or not, to go to church or synagogue, not to be condemned and arrested for our different opinions, including political ones, to live together in peace and harmony, regardless of the language we speak. Yes, she doesn’t always get it right, yes she exaggerates certain things just to show how correct she wants to be, but she moves on and learns from her mistakes.
Although the first things Moldovans say when asked what the EU is about are mainly personal benefits, such as freedom, both in the sense of freedom of movement and economic and personal freedom, economic development and high living standards, the European Union is much more than that.
The economic benefits will certainly help. But in the long run, if we do not get clear about who we are as a society and what are the values that we want to promote and protect, and we continue to base our opinions on hearsay, on what Russia tells us we should believe and know, then we will find ourselves in a traditionalist world like Iran, North Korea or Turkmenistan. Then we will ask ourselves: “How did we get here?”