The Republic of Moldova is slowly fading away. And this is happening not only due to objective causes, but primarily because of a government that has chosen to ignore the most serious problem facing the state: depopulation.

UN data from the World Population Prospects 2024 report officially confirms what I have been warning about for years: Moldova has entered a structural, profound, and long-term demographic decline.

Moreover, our country is ranked among the states with the largest relative population decreases by 2054. This is a demographic sentence, and the PAS government cannot claim it does not know. It knows. It sees. But it does not act.

Depopulation is not just a figure in a table. It is a direct blow to the economy, the labor market, the social system, and ultimately to national security. Birth rates are below the replacement threshold, which means a harsh truth: Moldova is shrinking from generation to generation, under a government that boasts of reforms but loses people.

The main driver of this disaster is massive migration. Young people leave. Young families leave. The workforce leaves. The future leaves. And instead of creating real conditions for people to stay or return, the PAS government has limited itself to promises of peace and strategies on paper.

Where is the real national program for the return of the diaspora?
Where is the serious support for young families?
Where is the policy to stimulate birth rates?
Where is the real package of measures for youth?

The answer is simple: it does not exist. There are only slogans and speeches.

At the same time, the Republic of Moldova is among the states with the lowest life expectancy in Europe, and the population is aging rapidly. By 2054, about one-third of the country’s population will be over 65, and by the end of the century the share of the elderly could reach 40%. Who will work? Who will sustain the pension system? Who will pay for healthcare? The government avoids these questions because it has no real answers.

Under these conditions, depopulation is no longer just a social problem, but a matter of national security. And the fact that the PAS government treats this subject as secondary is a historic irresponsibility, the consequences of which will be paid by future generations.

That is why I say it directly: the Republic of Moldova is not only losing population – it is losing time, opportunities, and its future under a government that talks a lot about reforms but fails to stop the emptying of the country of its people.

If the fight against depopulation does not become the number one national priority – with funding, decisions, and concrete policies, not speeches – we will end up in the absurd situation of building European institutions, roads, and strategies for a country without people, for a country that is disappearing.

Vlad Filat, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova, former Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova