Unlikely. Moldova will hold early parliemanetary elections on 29th July, 2009.

Questions:

Communist Party of Moldova is saying if the opposition will win the country will lose the independence and will be swallowed up by Romania. Do you think this threat could be real? Does somebody in Romania really want to integrate Moldova into Romania?

Elena Gnedina, The Centre for European Policy Studies

The Communist campaign in the last month has been built on 'othering' the opposition, presenting it as a threat to stability and even Moldovan independence, and blaming it for the outbreak of violence in April. See their electoral ad here http://www.youtube.com/user/PComunistiloRM. This has nothing to do with the realities on the ground: Voronin's claims are rather a tool to mobilise support of ethnic minorities in Moldova.

Nadia Dincovici, Freelancer journalist based in Bucharest, former correspondent in Paris and Athens.

No way...nobody in Romania really does think or want to unify the two countries. There are some good reasons for this. Moldova has a poor economy- it is one of the poorest European countries now. On the other hand, the Romanian economy does not feel so well (2 months ago, the R Government took a 19 millions euro grant from the EU, the biggest in the history of the country), so we will not be able to support an extra financial burden.

On the other hand, the reunification of Moldova with Romanian became an electoral campaign slogan, used as well in Romania and Moldova by the main parties. All of them know it s impossible to be done- but they will continue to use it because it can attracts a lot of votes during the elections (you must not forget that Romanian and Moldavian elections will be almost in the meantime). I want to be very clear on this point - it is just an campaign slogan and nobody will do it, in Bucharest or Chisinau.

Florent Parmentier, The Center of European Studies, Sciences-Po (Paris)

Concerning the 'threat', I don't think that anybody in Europe will adhere to this solution. EU diplomats are very reluctant to move borders, there or elsewhere. I have even met a former Yushchenko adviser who was worried about an eventual dismantlement of Moldova for his country's sake, and rushing for a quick EU integration of Moldova (even before his own country!). And I think that many politicians in Romania actually do not know much about Moldova, and are more concerned with the countries' minorities (e.g. Hungarians). Nevertheless, you have many nationalist and right-wing groups who are desirous to re-create a "Greater Romania" (Romania mare in Romanian) - possibly from a fifth to a third of the population. But beside that, Moldova is generally considered as a backward population and economy in Romania, with a curious mix of "they speak the same language as us, but worse than us".

The young Moldovan population is sympathetic with the reunification because of the lack of opportunities in Moldova. 'Romania' is seen as a soft way to integrate the EU. However, the pro-unionist movement overall is so far a minority in Moldova.