DUBASARII VECHI, Moldova, May 8 (Reuters) - Tomatoes, cucumbers, the odd aubergine and the Communist Party will always have a place in Natalia Galea's heart.
They go hand in hand, she says, harking back to an era when her country, the
former Soviet republic of Moldova, guaranteed there was bread on the table and the occasional slab of cheese to accompany the vegetables grown in her little plot.
The 45-year-old has little time for big city politics in Chisinau, the capital where demonstrators launched daily protests earlier this year against the ruling Communists amid fears the government wanted to force Moldova back
into the sphere of Russia.
She says she just wants stability and hopes the Communists will be allowed to provide it.
"Last year I voted for the Communist Party. They used to care about people. They promise to help the poor," Galea said, adding that she sells produce from a narrow strip of land by her house at a market on Thursdays and Sundays to earn money.
"I do not know what is happening in Chisinau. But I do not think anybody should interfere and prevent them (the communists) from doing what they have
promised."
Thousands of people in Moldova's countryside feel the same.
They have kept their faith in the old party of power after the fall of the Soviet Union more than 10 years ago, and voted en masse for the Communists in a parliamentary poll last year.
And the everyday struggle of life in one of Europe's poorest countries leaves little time to mull over politics.
ROUND-THE-CLOCK RALLIES
Earlier this year, thousands of students and nationalists protested in Chisinau, condemning the Communists' plans to force children to learn Russian and re-write history books amid fears that the moves would deny Moldova's cultural links with neighbouring Romania, whose language it shares.
The Communists dropped their plans almost immediately but the protesters did
not disperse, stepping up demonstrations after leading opposition deputy Vlad Cubreacov disappeared on March 21.
The opposition, the nationalist Christian Democratic Party, said he vanished
after a driver dropped him off outside his home. The police have found no trace of him.
They set up tents and called for the communists to leave power 24 hours a day -- a move which prompted the Council of Europe to step in at the end of March.
The council, concerned by growing instability in the country wedged between Romania and former Soviet Ukraine, chaired talks between both sides in Strasbourg and bashed out a compromise.
The Communists agreed to a moratorium on changing the country's official language, while the nationalists agreed to stop their calls for the ousting of the government.
Moldova's farmers, who represent about two thirds of the country's four million population, have ignored most of the twists and turns of the saga.
For Galea, the capital might as well be 3,000 kilometres away rather than the 30 shown on the signpost from her village of Dubasarii Vechi, known across the country for its fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and aubergines.
And spring is a time for working on the land, says fellow villager Liuba Moftinca.
"We used to watch television in winter. But in spring, summer and autumn we are all busy with growing vegetables and fruits," said the former doctor, who became a farmer after the hospital where she worked closed down due to a lack of funds.
"Vegetables are the only source of income for us," Moftinca said. "We work from dawn until sunset and we have no time to follow the events in Chisinau."
SUPPORT FOR COMMUNISTS IS RISING
More than a half of the villagers in Dubasarii Vechi support the Communists and analysts say the level of support is even higher in other villages and towns across the tiny country.
According to an opinion poll conducted by IMAS, a respected independent polling organisation with its headquarters in Romania, the Communists enjoy the support of 73 percent of the country.
Analysts said that showed that if the Communists had agreed to the opposition's demands and called an early election, they would have won 91 seats in the 101-seat parliament compared with their current 71.
"Today there is no reason to change the government because voters are the same as they were a year ago. They just do not react to the arguments of the
Communists' opponents," said reformist former Prime Minister Ion Sturza.
Nicolae Chirtoaca, director of independent think-tank the Euroatlantic Centre, agreed, saying the communists had won loyalty when they increased the monthly old-age pension to $10 from $7 and moved to pay wages on time.
Chirtoaca said popular policies have allowed Moldovans to forget the fact that the Communists have failed to pull Moldova out of its financial mire.
The state coffers are bare, about 80 percent of the population live on less than one dollar a day and emigration, legal and illegal, is at a record high. And with foreign debt payments coming up, it is not going to get easier.
The government has to pay $200 million on foreign debts this year, including
the principal on $75 million Eurobonds in June.
Foreign lenders have frozen aid to the country because of the slow pace of reforms and the government has so far failed to unlock it.
Reforms in the country were never liked, analysts said.
"If after a decade of democratic reforms the Communists are so massively popular, then it means our democrats and reformers have made mistakes," said
Viktor Zosu, an independent analyst.