2018 unification declarations in Moldova and Romania

In 2018, over a hundred localities in Moldova and dozens in Romania issued symbolic declarations of unification (Romanian: declarații de unire, sg.

Bessarabia, a geographical region corresponding up to a point with today's Moldova which was annexed in 1812 by the Russian Empire, voted for unification with Romania on 27 March 1918.

Moldovan and Romanian media provided several lists of their own in their newspaper articles, which vary in completeness and in the order in which these places declared their unifications.

On early March, it was reported that the gymnasium of Bogzești in Telenești District had made a declaration of unification with Romania, being the first school to do so.

[74][75] Other ones also did so at unspecified dates; these are the students of the Mihai Eminescu High School [ro] in Bălți, the Adrian Păunescu Gymnasium in Copăceni, the Pogănești Gymnasium in Pogănești, the Văsieni Gymnasium in Văsieni, the Mereșeni Gymnasium in the village of Mereșeni in Hîncești District, the Lăpușna High School in the town of Lăpușna in Hîncești District, the Ștefan Vodă High School in the town of Ștefan Vodă in Ștefan Vodă District, the Boris Cazacu High School in the town of Nisporeni in Nisporeni District, the Onisifor Ghibu High School in Chișinău, a kindergarten in the village of Tabăra in Orhei District, the Technical University of Moldova and students of the extension in Bălți of the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iași in Romania.

Thus, on 16 March, lawyers of the Panțîru și Partenerii Associated Bureau of Lawyers signed unification with Romania;[77] the participants of an event in the village of Ciucur Mingir in Cimișlia District dedicated to Sfatul Țării member and native of the village Nicolae Cernov did so on 20 March;[78] Moldovan Transnistria War veterans members of the Allegiance to the Motherland Public Association[79][80] and over 80 signatories of the Moldovan Declaration of Independence including among them Vasile Nedelciuc, on 22 March;[81][82][83][84] the National Liberal Party (PNL) of Moldova member and reserve colonel of the Moldovan Ground Forces Ion Margine on 27 March;[85] 23 unionist inhabitants of the village of Borogani in Leova District on 14 May or before;[86][4][87] and members of the pro-Romanian Moldovan civic and patriotic organization Faptă, nu Vorbă ("Action, not Talking") at an unspecified date.

[99][100][101] At unspecified dates did the Orhei branch of the Liberal Party, the InterAvo Bureau of Lawyers and the Council of the Polyleguminous Cooperative of Pănășești.

In Romania's case, around 46 localities (cities, communes, municipalities or villages) of the country declared unification with Moldova.

Moldovan and Romanian media did not publish lists of the places that did this, so information shown here is based on the respective cited sources.

[153] On 21 April, during a conference of the PMP branch of Cluj County, party member Eugen Tomac said that the party had requested the Local Municipal Council of Cluj-Napoca to issue a unification declaration with Moldova, as these declarations had an "extremely strong political content" through which it was possible to send "a message of openness to the second Romanian state", referring to Moldova.

[210] Formally presented the day before, several county councillors expressed concerns regarding the divisive and sensitive nature of the topic of unification with Romania within Moldovan society and a vote for its adoption was not carried out.

[220] On 15 November, a class of the Nicolae Bălcescu Gymnasial School in Oradea signed a union declaration with Moldova that also expressed support for the minority rights of the Romanians in Bulgaria, Serbia and Ukraine, as well as of the ethnic groups living on the Balkans closely related to the Romanians (the Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians and Istro-Romanians).

Over the next week, the rest of the classes at the school signed similar declarations, which were then sent to the Țării Crișurilor Museum [ro] of the city.

The parish of the village of Vâlcele in Covasna County signed unification with Moldova on 26 February;[225][226] the Romanian Dacia Museum, dedicated to Romanian auto racing, in Satu Mare in Satu Mare County did on 15 March;[227] and the parish Broșteni II in Broșteni did on 25 March, on the same day that the commune in which it is located did it.

On it participated hundreds of teachers from Moldova and Romania but also from the oblasts of Chernivtsi and Odesa in Ukraine and the Timok Valley in Serbia, which have substantial ethnic Romanian minorities.

[235][236][237] One example of this was Paris, in France, where the Moldovan organization Union Makes Force Association signed unification with Romania on 11 March.

[238] Later, in Milan, Italy, Moldovan citizens of the city met and signed a declaration in support of the unification of Moldova and Romania on 13 March.

[235] These declarations were also made and signed by the Moldovan and Romanian diasporas in several other cities, such as in Bergamo, Padua, Portogruaro, Rome, Treviso, Venice and Verona (all in Italy), Athens (in Greece), London (in the United Kingdom), Brussels (in Belgium)[235][236][237] and Dublin (in Ireland).

[249] He described Moldovan local officials which involved themselves into these declarations as either "strayed" or "bought with money",[250] and said that those who signed them risked criminal prosecution.

[247] He would later announce his intention to propose to the Moldovan parliament a law project that would allow the prosecution of local officials who issued unification declarations.

[251] Dodon criticised that similar actions would have received a harsher response in other states, such as Romania, and requested a meeting of the Supreme Security Council (CSS) of Moldova.

[254] According to Dodon, in less 24 hours since the start of this campaign[250] on 6 February,[255][256] 53 Moldovan localities signed these declarations;[250] by 24 March, this number would have risen to 302 according to the PSRM.

This meeting was attended by several notable politicians including former başkan Dumitru Croitor [ro], the then president of the Halk Topluşu (the People's Assembly of Gagauzia) Vladimir Cîssa, the Democratic Party of Moldova (PDM) deputy Nicolai Dudoglo [ro] (who announced that he had begun a collection of signatures against the unification with Romania that had obtained 10,000 signatures) and from Corneliu Dudnic, another PDM deputy.

[266][267] Furthermore, following Dodon's proposal for a law that would allow the prosecution of local officials who signed unification declarations, Maia Sandu, then the president of the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS), accused Dodon of dividing the Moldovan society and establishing "a dictatorship of thought and expression" by trying to ban the unionist movement and attempting to punish those who support it.

The then incoming 2019 Moldovan parliamentary election also sparked more enthusiasm among those who supported it, which could also explain Dodon's actions of voicing himself strongly against it, this possibly being motivated by electoral interest.

This would be due to the fact that "much higher expectations than the tangible results that can be offered to citizens who have possible unionist views are created", which would make them "actually believe that this political and geopolitical project can be realized in 2018 or in a few years".

On that day, then PSRM member of the Municipal Council of Chișinău Ion Ceban said that 21 localities had signed anti-unification declarations.

[3][6] In total, around 302 localities (cities, communes, municipalities or villages) of Moldova declared themselves against unification with Romania and in favor of Moldovan statehood as claimed by the PSRM.

Gribincea said that these declarations, while only symbolic, showed "a new current in Moldovan society" and that support for unification with Romania was gaining strength in Moldova.

He also stated that these actions may indicate a feeling of tiredness from Moldovan citizens in the face of the "situation of uncertainty in which they find themselves" and a desire for better conditions and standards of living.