The Communist Party now ruling in Moldova celebrated its 10th anniversary with pomposity: a scientific-practical conference took place at the Palace of the Republic, a festive meeting was held at the National Palace, and collected works of the leader of the party and the President of Moldova Vladimir Voronin "Break-through" were published…

The leaders of the party tried to carry their comrades back to the festive atmosphere of party congresses of good old days. The veterans and pioneers looked really happy. On such a background you do not even want to think about real problems and criticism directed at you. "The winners are not judged", said one of the leaders asked to comment on the critical statements of the opposition directed at the ruling party.

But while this phrase, assigned to the Russian Empress Ekaterina II, could be considered true in the period of monarchic wars, and is still true for the Olympic champions, the rules have somewhat changed in modern politics. If we are talking about the democratic politics, then the winners can and should be judged, can and should be criticized and controlled. It is useful not only for the common cause, but also for the winners themselves.

In October the Economist Intelligence Unit published its regular assessment of the situation in Moldova remarkably entitled "Political tension will remain as high as it was, and the foreign investors will keep the distance".

In the analysis it is forecasted that "the Communist Party of Moldova will remain the dominant political power, backed up by the control it has over the executive and legislative branches of power and by the weakness of the opposition".

At the same time, the attempts of the Communist Party to move the opposition aside and to promote unpopular reforms have already resulted in street protests and the sabotage of Parliamentary sessions.

"The pragmatic wing of the Communist Party led by Vladimir Voronin, the leader of the party and the actual President of Moldova, is growing stronger. The lack of a charismatic leader of the orthodox wing of the party and Voronin's control over the financial and administrative levers keep the supporters of the harsh line of the CP from realizing some of the more traditional preferences of the party", considers the Economist Intelligence Unit.

In the meantime, a big party is obviously emerging in Moldova, a party which is not registered and cannot be registered with the Ministry of Justice, but which cannot be passed unnoticed and ignored - the party of those displeased with the regime established in Moldova by the CP.

The party of those displeased with the power cannot be called an opposition party to the Communists, because among the members of the Communist Party the discontent with the top of the Party is growing. The phenomenon may have more far-reaching consequences than all the unions of the right oriented and centrist parties.

The Official Communist Union of the Youth of Moldova has split up. The New Komsomol has been created and is in a radical opposition to Voronin's regime. An initiative group of citizens has been created in Chisinau to gather signatures for the organization of a referendum on the issue of Moldova joining the Union of Russia and Belorus. A former member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Republic of Moldova and a former Communist MP Vasile Neicovcen is creating a Gagauz branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in Comrat. The Association of the deceived depositors, among which there are many members of the Communist Party of the Republic of Moldova, also came to the end of its patience. More and more veterans and young people are gathering around the organizational committee for the reestablishment of Moldovan Communist Party of Lenin type. A group of the party members began to publish the newspaper "Pravda" (Truth), criticizing the leaders of the Communist Party of the Republic of Moldova led by Voronin. A couple of websites have appeared, where one can read nearly curses addressed to Voronin and his lieutenants.

The idea of creating another, "true" communist party is overwhelming the masses more and more. More and more party members consider that they have as much rights to the communist brand, which provides such mad political and material dividends, as the top of the party, which pursues an absolutely non-communist policy. If the idea of creating another communist party is put into practice and becomes a material strength, it will prove to be the strongest blow for the actual power.

The leaders of the Communist Party of the Republic of Moldova never represented the entire population of Moldova. At the Parliamentary elections the party got 50 per cents of the votes of the electorate that came to the elections, but just one third of all the electorate of Moldova. Transnistria, where every seventh inhabitant of Moldova lives, did not vote for the Communist Party.

Today we witness the following process: having disappointed many of its traditional supporters, the leaders of the Communist Party of Moldova try to keep the controlling "part of shares" in the Joint-Stock company called "Moldovan politics" at the expense of extending its influence over others, non-communist social strata.

To all appearances, the non-Party advisers of the President reason approximately in the following way: "There is nothing tragic in loosing some old Stalinists, or being sward at by the frostbitten marginalia-national fans. On the other hand we will attract other normal, moderate people, first of all through the idea of European integration and the change of the orientation of the party to a social-democratic one. Thus, we will keep full control of the situation at any specific moment".

It is a false road for the Communist Party of the Republic of Moldova, a blind alley. The electorate voted for the Communist Party as for a Communist and Pro-Russian party that promised to bring back Soviet social system and establish close relations with Russia. The electorate, theoretically ready to support the new "democratic" slogans of the leaders of the CP, is not going to vote for this party, because they have other political role models. Such electorate will say "thank you" to Voronin for all his pro-European and anti-Tiraspol declarations and will vote for other parties, which in his opinion will manage better than CP to put these declarations into practice.

But for now in Moldova there is no real alternative to CP, which would be able to transform the virtual "party of the displeased" into something real and mobilize the electorate to take down the actual regime.

According to the assessments of the majority of Moldovan and foreign experts, the Communist Party of Moldova will remain the dominant power in the next Moldovan Parliament as well. But sooner or later the dizziness caused by the successes will go away. In any case, the Communist Party of Moldova will never be able to repeat its success from 2001. It is not at all obvious that in the next Parliament the party will be able to gather 62 votes in order to elect its leader as the President.

At the end, the last word belongs to the electorate, which once in a couple of years gets the right to judge who is the winner and who is the defeated.