"Hardly any European country receives as little attention in the international press as the Republic of Moldova. Since the end of the bloody civil war across the Dniestr in the early summer of 1992, the country has provided no spectacular headlines, but has developed almost silently: neither the comparatively dramatic problems, nor the moderately encouraging first signs of progress in Moldovan politics, have been acknowledged outside of the country with the exception of limited expert circles. Nevertheless, this young state on the strategically significant dividing line between the crisesshaken south-east Europe and the post-soviet transformation region is worthy of examination. In the shadow of political turbulence and some bloody disputes in the region of the “crisis belt” from Central Asia over the Caucasus up to former Yugoslavia, Moldova endeavours to attain stability and reform to overcome the overwhelming problems inherited from the Soviets. On 22 March 1998, 2.4 m electors in the Republic of Moldova were called upon to elect a new Parliament. With the constitution of the new legislature by 101 parliamentarians, those deputies from the previous period, who emerged from the first free elections in 1994, lost their mandates. In the same way that the presidential elections carried out at the end of 1996 had led to a peaceful power change at the level of the head of state, the parliamentary elections can also be regarded as evidence of noticeable advances in the democratisation of the country. For the first time, reform-oriented forces now represent the majority of members of Parliament, who brought a reform-minded government into power in May. After the crises, retrogressions and crippling power struggles of the last few years, Moldova has thus received a second chance for profound economic and democratic change."

Support: Digital;Paper