Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08CHISINAU954
2008-09-24 13:13:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Chisinau
Cable title:  

CHRISTIAN DEMOCRAT LEADER LAUNCHES SMEAR

Tags:  PGOV PHUM KDEM MD 
pdf how-to read a cable
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DE RUEHCH #0954 2681313
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FM AMEMBASSY CHISINAU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7113
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS CHISINAU 000954 

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EUR/UMB AND DRL/AE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM MD
SUBJECT: CHRISTIAN DEMOCRAT LEADER LAUNCHES SMEAR
CAMPAIGNS AGAINST OPPONENTS

Sensitive but Unclassified. Please Protect
Accordingly.

UNCLAS CHISINAU 000954

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EUR/UMB AND DRL/AE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM MD
SUBJECT: CHRISTIAN DEMOCRAT LEADER LAUNCHES SMEAR
CAMPAIGNS AGAINST OPPONENTS

Sensitive but Unclassified. Please Protect
Accordingly.


1. (SBU) Summary: Facing dwindling poll numbers,
Christian Democratic Party (PPCD) leader Iurie
Rosca initiated a lurid smear campaign against two
opposition parties with which he competes for
second place behind the Party of Communists
(PCRM). Running a negative smear campaign could
cost him votes. End summary.


2. (SBU) Given falling poll numbers, Rosca's party
may not receive a minimum of six percent of votes
now required for representation in Parliament in
the spring 2009 election. Perhaps to boost
support for his party, Rosca recently published
two inflammatory magazine-style volumes against
other opposition party leaders. The first was
launched on August 8 and targeted the head of the
newly created National Liberal Party (PLDM). It
is titled "Filat, the Gangster of Transition who
Robbed the Country," and contains 95 pages of
court judgments and reprints from the PPCD
newspaper Flux, accusing Filat of corruption
during his time as head of the government's
Privatization Department (1998-2001). The volume
also accuses Filat of using his "dirty money" to
corrupt journalists and induce members of other
parties to join the PLDM. Volume II, at 96 pages
and launched on August 20, attacks Our Moldova
Alliance leader Serafim Urechean and his
associates under the title "Dinosaurs of the
Soviet Regime." Also reprinting court judgments
and Flux articles, it accuses Urechean of
privatizing buildings for his own benefit during
his term as Mayor of Chisinau (1995-2005).


3. (SBU) The stodgy photocopies on newsprint used
to fill both volumes contrast sharply with their
glossy, lurid covers. A photograph of Filat,
chewing on his fingernails is surrounded by hairy
caterpillars which crawl over his collars and over
his head. Urechean's head is photo-edited onto
the body of a bare-torsoed crime boss whose chest
is covered with tattoos. He is wearing a gold
crown, identifiable as archaeological loot to fans
of a popular 1970s Soviet crime film.


4. (SBU) Rosca has admitted publicly that both
volumes were published with the upcoming elections
in mind. He also declared his high-minded motive
to warn Moldova about the dangers of corruption
and organized crime. Going beyond these warnings,
he also requested that the Prosecutor General's
Office, the Ministry of Interior, the Center to
Combat Economic Crimes and Corruption, and the
intelligence services investigate the allegations
made in both volumes.


5. (SBU) Comment: Politics in Moldova is a full-
contact sport. The level of vitriol in Rosca's
volumes may indicate a level of desperation on the
part of the PPCD and its leader. Rosca, known for
years as a firebrand anti-Communist, signed what
many of his former supporters regarded as a pact
with the Devil in 2005. Just after parliamentary
elections that year, he entered into a voting
alliance with the PCRM , and became Deputy Speaker
of Parliament as part of the bargain. Since then,
public support for him and his party has dropped
sharply, and the PPCD might not reach the six
percent threshold for parliamentary seats in an
election held today. Under these circumstances he
has turned in desperation to denouncing other
party leaders. End comment.

Chaudhry