Tired, the Republic of Moldova remains no one’s
Mihaela is 24 years old, graduated from Tourism School and spent several years in Austria and Germany. She returned to Moldova in 2019 because, she says on the Bucharest-Chisinau night train, she believed that her country was finally on a good path and that things would change.
The change for Moldova, she continues, would have come “through civil society”From the Republic of Moldova, especially through young people concerned about climate change, fundamental rights, democracy and who finally managed to find themselves through various non-governmental organizations and civic movements.
The euphoria is over. Mihaela has a short haircut, has a few tattoos on her hand and cries at the window. He had just told a foreigner, out of breath, that he was going to Chisinau for the last time. “To settle with the apartment”. This is the plan: she solves what she has to solve and then she leaves the country for good, with her parents and everything. Where? “We do not know. Germany or Spain”. Are you leaving because of the war? “I’m leaving because I’m scared. ”
The Republic of Moldova is the European country with the worst demographic decline. especially of young people.
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In Chisinau It’s raining, it’s snowing, it’s sunny. On the streets of the city, Ukrainian families are easy to identify, by the luggage you take care of or by the feeling of confusion in the eyes. Some people stop and offer help. Moldovans usually ask what the destination is, thinking that they can give some directions. They also asked us, the PressOne team of reporters, after they saw us with our luggage through the city and assumed that we would be refugees.
“Green telephone lines have been opened, everything is sorted through a crisis and support center. For example, here in the center of MoldExpo, in the early days people came and brought a lot, from food to mattresses or clothes to toys and food. All”reports Vitalie, one of hundreds of young Moldovans involved in managing the refugee crisis.
Vitalie he is now 33 years old and he wants his country to do well in the whole story. There have been several incidents after some locals offered their homes to refugees, but they were isolated. “I do not want this to be sensationalist news about Moldova“, He states. The speculation that some compatriots are making about the prices of accommodation in this activity says that he is ashamed – for two weeks, a room in Chisinau can cost a few hundred euros per night.
The activist insists that Moldova experienced a small fraction of this event now in 2014, when the Russian Federation annexed the Crimea. A fraction only:
“They were also refugees in 2014. But then their number was small. We’ve never seen anything like it. ”
And the official data confirms what he said.
In just two weeks, more than 270,000 Ukrainian refugees crossed the border into Moldova. 107,000 remained in the country, according to the Chisinau Foreign Ministry. 46,000 are minors.
Vitalie and his girlfriend toured the refugee center organized by the Chisinau City Hall at the MoldExpo exhibition center, a unit that can accommodate 500 souls for a few days, until I find transportation to other lands. I ask her if Moldovans are worried that the instability that the Russian Federation has triggered in the region will cause a new hemorrhage of the population, especially young people.
“I believe that the first thing to do is to keep the conflict neutral in the idea of maintaining the status quo as calmly as possible, as calm as possible and to find reasons to stay here. Don’t run away from the country. “
We are also talking about Chisinau, which still seems like a tired city. “It simply came to our notice then. Because we have a tired historical past. We are tired. The people left here are burdened by poverty, misery and lack of perspective. In such a bright situation you have nowhere to go. Young people leave and only people who have no alternative remain here “says the young woman.
And yet, from other perspectives, everyday life in the Republic of Moldova is moving forward as it did yesterday. High school kids are seen every day at a cafe in the center, just across the street from the government headquarters of the Republic of Moldova.
Galina is 16 years old. He asks me if I am Romanian. It seemed possible, from the accent. He says that he wants to go to Medicine and asks me, if I don’t mind, and to apologize for that, if he shouldn’t come to Romania. Exactly. “Do you think I should come to Romania?”
She knows a few things about Cluj Napoca and wonders if it might be a good choice for her. She already knows the city is expensive, which worries her a bit. But he thinks “In Cluj there are better conditions at home and a better school.”
I ask her if she would return to the Republic of Moldova after graduating from Romania. “No, of course not. I’m going to Germany”.
There is absolutely no difference between Galina and any young woman her age in Romania.
“I want to become a country where people want to live. Here is my big challenge as president. “ – transmitted to Moldovans, after the elections of 15 November 2020, by President Maia Sandu, in speech in the inaugural.
Another difficult year of pandemic followed, and now a war at the door and the worst security threat since the Transnistrian war, 30 years ago.
Paul he is 17 years old and it seems that in front of the homework, at a table in the cafe. We talk and start talking about the atmosphere around us, after the war started. “It was very stressful. The world has started to be very aggressive, under the background of stress “say.
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He noticed that many Ukrainian families had appeared in Chisinau and that there were many cars with registration numbers in Ukraine. And stress, a lot of stress, he insists.
PressOne: What do you think about the war?
Paul: It’s not fair, but at the moment you can’t do anything but take care of people close to you and that’s it. You can make thousands and thousands of posts on Instagram about the war and thus intensify the state in which people are already. You stress others more. Against this background, I deleted my Instagram, because I couldn’t stand it anymore.
There is a lot of aggression, one has to do with Ukraine, another with Russia. Some are with Putin, some with Zelensky. I told myself “I don’t want to talk about it, let it be the way it is”. I see the news, but I’m not talking. My parents seem to be reliving some things. But I know this is wrong. That it is already the 21st century and such actions should not be taken. We think that anything is possible. But Maia Sandu and our state seek to maintain a state of neutrality and we will see how the whole situation evolves.
PressOne: Do you feel that Moldova can get closer to Europe?
Paul: I think so. Europe, my God! I think there would be a lot of changes in the state. I think the infrastructure needs to be reformed. Modernizations. More actions in favor of Art. Renovation. Urbanization. Most of all, I want to invest in Art and Culture, because that’s how we can’t promote and evolve.
PressOne: You have a lot of notes in front of you. What are you studying?
Paul: I’m in high school and I’m currently studying for Toefl. But in general I want clothing design. I dreamed of going to Italy. It’s a design school in Florence. I’ve seen a few universities that are good for me, and Italy and yet one of the fashion centers. I wish I was there. I dreamed of reaching a campaign like Prada or Ferragamo. Most of my classmates leave after high school. In Romania, in Cluj, in Germany or Italy. We know about Romania that the studies there are more advanced and that the conditions are better.
PressOne: Would you return to the Republic of Moldova?
Paul: Just to see my family and grandparents. Otherwise, no. You just have nothing to do here. In Moldova everything and at a very very degraded and simple level.
In a supermarket, a guard explains to a lady that the dog food is over and that he can buy for the cats, if he wants, “that’s all”. The client is not convinced and leaves, irritated.
He mutters something about the war, he talks to himself. I ask him if people are taking to the streets in Chisinau to protest against the war. “This is not the time now“, Cryptically transmits and pauses.
Then it goes wild. “In the 90’s they all jumped on us. Who then defended Moldova, poor thing? And the Ukrainians were accomplices, they jumped on us with the Zaporozhian Cossacks. Why don’t we get in now, what’s our job? When two fight in the third win “, the supermarket guard in Chisinau makes an x-ray of the situation. “Let us not all be at peace, let us be with ourselves, with our history and our traditions. ”
Chisinau-Bucharest night train leaves at 17.20 from the capital of the Republic of Moldova and arrives at the destination after 07.00 in the morning, or landmark to which is added, in the good tradition of the region, “The delay”. The garrison is isolated from the flow of trains carrying refugees. They travel for free, with trains leaving Chisinau after midnight, at times that are not fixed. Trains with Ukrainian refugees stop in Iasi.
The train is at customs in Ungheni for hours, for the control of travel documents and for changing the wheels, due to the different gauge. Măgăoaia also travels 14-15 hours by road, even if it is less than 500 km to Chisinau.
People moan hot in the evening and shiver from the cold in the morning – the heating is on coals, and the train is sealed with adhesive tape to the windows, so that the current does not enter.
Smoking is visible between cars. The red curtains are gnawed and smell bad, and the bedding is stained.
– Romanian or Ukrainian? the Romanian customs officer asks how he puts his head on the door of the compartment.
– It’s good that you’re Romanian, I was preparing to take care of you, if you ran away from home instead of fighting to defend your country..
Add a joke about gun and cigarette trafficking.
– But if I had three children and ran away for them, instead of dying in Ukraine, was that okay?
– Yes Yes. Yes to three children. That’s how he allows them.
“What if I only had one?”
The Romanian customs officer does not feel empathetic tonight. “Damn it, did you see what bribes are made at the border? Two thousand men, let him through. Two thousand euros, brother“, He can be heard admiringly walking down the aisle as he walks away.
The Bucharest Chisinau train is also called “Friendship” and shows exactly that the care relationship of Bucharest has it with “younger siblings”Across the Prut.