Jan Lisnevsky, sociologist
According to research by the Intellect Group, while 62.1% of citizens cited the family as their main source of support in 2015, that figure has risen to 65.7% today. At the same time, trust in the government has declined significantly over the same period.
Lisnevsky points out that having a child outside of a registered marriage does not mean that the child is growing up without a family. In 2025, 35.3% of children were born outside of official marriage, yet people still turn first and foremost to relatives for support.
“Who will help with the child? The family. Who will provide money? The family. Who will help buy a home? Parents or relatives abroad,” the sociologist noted.
According to him, a situation is gradually emerging in which the family is taking on more and more of the state’s functions.
“A ‘private Moldova’ is emerging, where the family is gradually taking on the functions of social protection, insurance, banking, employment services, and the pension system—a significant portion of what the state exists for in the first place.
And then something happens that the authorities will not want to hear. When society continues to fulfill its obligations—paying taxes, obeying laws, and supporting the state apparatus—while the government increasingly fails to fulfill its obligations to society, a model of parasitic government emerges: “it continues to take resources, but gives less and less back to the people in the form of security, justice, and opportunities,” the sociologist asserts.
He concludes that if this trend continues, distrust of the authorities may eventually turn into distrust of the state itself.
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