ELECTIONS IN MOLDOVA, ROMANIA AND CROATIA

The article deals with the presidential elections in three different countries (even though two of them are closely related in language and history). In Romania the parliamentary elections were concurrently held. Although each having one’s own specifics, all election campaigns showed similar trends. Everywhere the protest voting became of importance. A noticeable increase in nationalist-«sovereigntist», right-wing conservative and anti-immigrant sentiments, especially clearly manifested in Romania and Croatia, and imposed its direct or indirect influence upon the results. In order to retain power, the ruling parties in Romania and Moldova resorted to outright falsifications. Previously such blatant violations of democratic norms and principles were known to be reserved by authoritarian regimes and considered inconceivable among EU member states. However, such actions do not raise questions in Brussels. The electoral cycle in these states has not ended yet, and it is instructive to look at the further misadventures of the local «democracy», which henceforth cannot be called that without quotation marks. A forecast of the probable election results in Romania and Moldova is also given: establishment parties will not allow the opposition to come to power by any means, although it is potentially stronger than ever.