Moldovan president's speech at national scientific conference “9 MAY: Commemoration, Reconciliation and European Unity”

Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen ambassadors,

Madam Deputy Prime Minister,

Mister Minister,

Dear teachers,

Dear pupils,

Distinguished guests,

I welcome the initiative to organize, specifically on 9 May, a conference dedicated to memory, reconciliation and European unity.

We meet on a day which, more than any other, has represented in our society both a source of division and a ground on which, for far too long, false narratives about the past have been built.

This is precisely why this event has a special importance.

Because we cannot build a mature democratic society without a solid culture of memory, based on facts.

It is therefore commendable that, within the framework of this conference, the significance of 9 May will be discussed, including from the perspective of the need to anchor in society the truth about the events of 1945 and their consequences.

Yes, 9 May is Victory Day – and the sacrifice of those who fought and who died in the Second World War must be respected and commemorated with dignity.

But history did not stop in 1945.

For us, it was followed by the establishment of a regime that brought deportations, organized famine, repression, fear and the systematic attempt to suppress our national identity.

Therefore, we cannot tolerate the overlapping of the commemoration of the victims of the war with the glorification of the Soviet regime.

We will not be able to defend democracy and we will not be able to build a free society, if we continue to accept distortions meant to cultivate the image of a supposedly “liberating” Soviet Union.

At the same time, it is important to understand that there is no contradiction between the idea of honoring Victory Day and celebrating Europe.

On the contrary.

The European project was born precisely from the devastating lesson of war and totalitarianism. From the conviction that peace and freedom must replace hatred and imperialism.

A united Europe is the result of a reconstruction that was first and foremost moral, starting from the imperative of respect for human dignity.

But we all know: when we dared to assert our desire to live according to the same principles, when we shouted our right to decide our own future, we were forced, in 1992, to defend our country with weapons in our hands.

And even if weapons are silent today on the territory of Moldova, we are facing another form of aggression – cognitive warfare.

A war that targets the past as well and that, by manipulating it, seeks to control our present and our future.

Those who still insist on an exclusively Moscow-style interpretation of the date of 9 May are trying to falsify not only what happened in 1945, but also the truth about everything that followed.

Just as today, Russian propaganda is trying to justify the war of aggression against Ukraine, once again starting from the denial of a people’s identity and from the abusive use of history.

Therefore, we must be more aware than ever that defending the truth goes beyond the limits of intellectual or academic debates. Defending the truth is about democratic resilience and national security.

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is true that Moldova needs cohesion.

But reconciliation cannot be built on moral and historical ambiguity.

We cannot close the rifts in society by mixing truth with lies. We cannot put an equal sign between victims and aggressors. We cannot accept, in the name of “balance”, justifications for deportations, repression or the distortion of our national being.

Authentic reconciliation is built on truthfulness.

On the recognition of suffering. On clear-sightedness regarding the past.

And on the ability to turn memory into a warning for the future.

In this regard, the National Programme, Memory and Gratitude, and the activities carried out under it have represented an important step. But it is only the beginning of a process that must be continued with seriousness and responsibility.

I am also happy that today the pupils who participated in the competition dedicated to memory and gratitude will be awarded.

Dear pupils,

I encourage you to carry forward this effort to learn about and understand history. And I urge you to speak in your families, with colleagues or friends, about the importance of valuing the freedom we enjoy today. Remind them that democracy and peace are not guaranteed forever. They must be defended and passed on to every generation.

Ladies and gentlemen,

In conclusion, I want to state unequivocally: the European future of Moldova means assuming the past, just as it means choosing truth over propaganda.

Only in this way will we be able to build a society that does not allow fear, lies and division to decide the destiny of its citizens.

Thank you.