UDMR senator: Granting massive citizenship to Moldavians help Russian extremism

UDMR senator Gyorgy Frunda criticised the Romanian Government policy in granting citizenship to Moldavians to a large scale. The MP said in an interview for RFI that offering citizenship en masse doesn’t solve anything. On the contrary, it encourages Russian extremists.

„The Moldavians getting Romanian citizenship does not stay in Moldova or Romania. 90% of them leave for Western Europe. In this way, the Romanian Government, the Romanian politics only help the Russian far-right, which desires a Moldovan state without Romanians.”

„I believe that that the road to follow is helping Moldavians stay in Moldova, helping Romanian living there have material possibilities to develop. The Romanian interest is that Moldova continues to be inhabited by Moldavians, by Romanians, keep their numbers, have a normal relationship as they gain accession to the European Union, to be in the same European family.”

„To change the borders is impossible, whoever is thinking of it does not recognise the European relationships of the 21st century”. Frunda is member of the Romanian Delegation in the European Council and was recently elected co-reporter to the APCE Monitoring Commission for the Russian Federation.

The Relationship with Russia needs to be managed rationally, Frunda said. „The elephant will never be equal to the gazelle, each of them has their advantage, but they need to share the same savannah. This is what us and the Russians must do. (…) If we want, we can find common ground. Political relationships, economic relationships and commercial relationships can be treated from equal to equal and this is what needs to be done”, he declared.

The Parliament believes that Romania needs to follow its interest in the Moscow relationship: „The relationship with Russia needs to be managed in an absolute rational manner, judging from Romania’s interest, from the community’s interest. This is the starting point and only through dialogue and the improvement of relations we can reach our goals in the region”.

The relationship with Romania’s Eastern neighbour has been „frozen” for two decades, Gyorgy Frunda claims. According to him, Romania did not take all the necessary steps to improve its relationships with Russia, especially on the economic and commercial sides.. „The Russian Federation has the symptoms of the great empire that lost its powers and is now looking for its place in a new economic and politic European geography, it is suspicious, manages alliances with great difficulty. Bit I also believe we didn’t have he necessary ability either to convince the Russian part and often the much-too-passionate delegations of some Romanian leaders have made this road more difficult”, Gyorgy Frunda noted.

Romania recently offered the Republic of Moldova an aid worth of 100,000 million euros, after Russia helped Chisinau with funds, too. Gyorgy Frunda expects Moscow to receive Bucharest’s gesture with coldness. „Russia will not be happy about Romania’s aid, it wants to keep Moldova in the CSI circle, the confederation of independent countries, and we’re encouraging Moldova, logically, to come towards Europe, towards the European Union”, the senator said.