Republic of Moldova versus Romania: the cold war of national identities

Abstract

International audience ; In their project of forging a Moldovan identity that would justify the existence of the economically distressed Republic of Moldova as an independent state, the officials search for the symbols commonly used for forging nationhood. As these symbols are the same or not significantly different from those of the neighbouring Romanian state due to their common history (same official language, though differently labelled, same tricolor, similar coat-of-arms), the Moldovan officials perceive Romania as a threat. My analysis based on anthropological fieldwork pays special attention to the political declarations of the Moldovan government and questions their capacity of strengthening citizenship in a country in which ethnic minorities form more than 30% of the population and which experiences severe economic problems and massive emigration. The analysis draws also attention to the evolution of NATO and EU borders, which have accelerated the identity problems of Moldova, which does not wish to follow 'neither Russian, nor Romanian'