CHISINAU, September 25. /TASS/. Moldova’s Dignity and Truth (DA) Civil Platform, the initiator of ongoing mass protests in Chisinau’s central square, pledged on Friday it would not hamper protest actions of other parties, the Party of Socialists and Our Party, in front of the parliament building.
"If they want to share our demands, they are free to do that but they must be sincere. If they seek political profits, we will nor cooperate with them," Andrei Nastase, a DA leader, said, adding that the Dignity and Truth would not claim the right to picket the parliamentary building. "Since we have already put tents [in Chisinau’s central square] to accommodate the protesters, we will not put more," he said.
Earlier, Socialist leader Igor Dodon, who leads the Moldovan parliament’s biggest faction, called on the DA Platform to pool their efforts. "We have common goals. If we fight against each other, nothing good would become of it," he said, adding that his party agreed with Our Party to abstain from using party symbols during protest rallies. "Poverty has no nationality and Moldova’s people has found itself impoverished because of oligarchs. MY call is addressed to all, Russians, Romanians, the Gagauz, Bulgarians. This is our homeland. Let us make concrete steps together to free it," Dodon said. He also called on the DA leaders who carried out their protests under the European Union’s flags to drop geopolitical oratory.
Mass protests have been going on in Moldova since early September. Two big rallies involving thousands of protesters were held on September 6 and 13. The rally on September 6, the biggest one in the recent years, adopted a resolution demanding resignation of the country’s authorities and early parliamentary elections. The protesters set up a tent camp of about 300 tents in Chisinau’s central square. Last week, protesters staged pickets at the buildings of the prosecutor general’s office, the national anti-corruption centre and other state institutions demanding resignation of their top officials.
Other opposition forces share these demands. Socialists and Our Party plan to organize a protest rally in Chisinau’s central square on Sunday. Next Sunday, the square will be the venue for a DA rally. Opposition leaders pledge they will use only peaceful means to achieve their goals.
Large-scale protests erupted in Moldova in the spring 2015 after the media had reported a theft of about one billion US dollars from three Moldovan banks, which nearly went bankrupt. Back then, Moldova’s ruling Alliance for European Integration coalition cane under severe criticism from foreign donors, including the European Union and the World Bank, which subsequently suspended their financing of the republic.