The Chance Political Party (), known until 2023 as Ours Moldovan Political Party (), is a

political party in Moldova This article lists a series of political parties, both historical and contemporary as well as active and inactive, from the politics of Moldova, Republic of Moldova. The Moldova, Republic of Moldova is a multi-party system, multi-party parliamen ...

. It was founded in October 2020 by Mihail Ahremțev.

History

Ours

The creation of Ours was announced on 20 October 2020. The party's leader, Mihail Ahremțev, later came to be a supporter of the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

. Ahremțev claimed at the moment of the party's creation that, in Moldova, a "

genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

" against the ethnic minorities of the country was taking place and that the party would promote the interests of Moldova's minorities, including the

Gagauz people The Gagauz (; ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to southern Moldova ( Gagauzia, Taraclia District, Basarabeasca District) and southwestern Ukraine (Budjak). Gagauz are mostly Eastern Orthodox Christians. The term Gagauz is also often used ...

and the

Transnistria Transnistria, officially known as the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic and locally as Pridnestrovie, is a Landlocked country, landlocked Transnistria conflict#International recognition of Transnistria, breakaway state internationally recogn ...

ns. Another founding member, Anastasia Filipașcu, claimed that the

Romanians Romanians (, ; dated Endonym and exonym, exonym ''Vlachs'') are a Romance languages, Romance-speaking ethnic group and nation native to Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. Sharing a Culture of Romania, ...

are an ethnic minority in Moldova. The party also wants

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

to become the second

state language An official language is defined by the Cambridge English Dictionary as, "the language or one of the languages that is accepted by a country's government, is taught in schools, used in the courts of law, etc." Depending on the decree, establishmen ...

of Moldova. The party has been described as

statist In political science, statism or etatism (from French, ''état'' 'state') is the doctrine that the political authority of the state is legitimate to some degree. This may include economic and social policy, especially in regard to taxation an ...

, Moldovenist,

pro-Russian Russophilia is the identification or solidarity with, appreciation of, or support for the Russia, country, Russians, people, Russian language, language, and history of Russia. One who espouses Russophilia is called a russophile. Its Opposite ...

, and anti-Western. On 26 June 2023, the party joined the Chance. Duties. Realization political bloc, dominated by former

Șor Party The ȘOR Party ( ) was a pro-Russian populist political party in Moldova. Known from its foundation in 1998 until October 2016 as the Socio-Political Movement "Equality" (), the party held Eurosceptic and Russophilic stances. On 19 June 2023, t ...

members.

Chance

Soon after

Ilan Shor Ilan may refer to: Organization *ILAN, Israeli umbrella organization for the treatment of disabled children Given name *Ilan (name), a Hebrew/Israeli name * Ilan Bakhar, a retired Israeli footballer * Ilan Araújo Dall'Igna, a Brazilian footballe ...

announced the creation of the Chance. Duties. Realization bloc, the Ours party renamed itself the Chance party, and the Moldovan TV presenter

Alexei Lungu Alexey ( ; ), is a Russian and Bulgarian male given name derived from the Greek ''Aléxios'' (), meaning "Defender", and thus of the same origin as the Latin Alexius. Similar Ukrainian and Belarusian names are romanized as Oleksii (Олекс ...

became the leader of the party. Lungu claimed that the Chance party is liberal. The party was excluded from 2023 Moldovan local elections two days before polling stations opened. This was announced by Prime Minister

Dorin Recean Dorin Recean (born 17 March 1974) is a Moldovan politician, economist, and academic serving as Prime Minister of Moldova since February 2023. Since 2022 he has also served as Presidential Advisor on Defense and National Security, and Secretary ...

, saying that the decision was made by the

Commission for Emergency Situations In-Commission or commissioning may refer to: Business and contracting * Commission (remuneration), a form of payment to an agent for services rendered ** Commission (art), the purchase or the creation of a piece of art most often on behalf of anot ...

(CSE). The party tried to appeal this decision.

Ideology

In its statute, the party states its commitment to the principles of social democracy and mixed economy, and defines itself as a centre-left or a broadly left-wing party. The party also declared itself liberal. The leader of the party, Alexei Lungu, promotes geopolitical non-alignment of Moldova, arguing that "people should not go east or west and beg for money, no matter what the conditions are". Chance party promises to "work for the development of the country", bring investors into "concrete projects", and ensure that "justice is not a tool used for political vendettas". The party is closely associated with the banned

and

. The

Prime Minister of Moldova The prime minister of Moldova () is Moldova's head of government. The prime minister is formally appointed by the president of Moldova and exercises executive power along with the Cabinet of Moldova, cabinet, subject to Parliament of Moldova, p ...

accused the Chance Party of being a simple rename, and a direct continuation, of the banned Șor Party. Amongst the party's proposals are two programs – “Moldovan Village” and “Moldovan City”, which aim to modernize "every village and every city" in Moldova, and within which city halls will benefit from financial support. The party also pledged to prioritize social welfare, and proposed to provide an additional payment of 1,000 lei to every pensioner whose pension is currently less than 5,000 lei.

References

{{Reflist, 30em 2020 establishments in Moldova Political parties established in 2020 Russophilic parties in Moldova Anti-Romanian sentiment Moldovenism Russophilic parties