CHISINAU, September 27. /TASS/. Moldova’s opposition Socialist Party and Our Party have gathered nearly 50,000 supporters for a demonstration in Chisinau demanding resignation of the country’s government and snap presidential and parliamentary elections, Socialist Party leader Igor Dodon told TASS on Sunday.
"A total of 50,000 people are taking part in the demonstration. With this demonstration, we launch a non-stop protest action. It is necessary to free the country from oligarchs and return the trust of citizens toward the state," Dodon said.
Columns of Socialists and Our Party are marching down the central boulevard in the Moldovan capital to the building of the parliament where a tent camp has been organized and a stage has been put up. Demonstrators are carrying Moldovan flags as organizers agreed not to use party symbols and chant "Bring Back the Country" and "Down with Oligarchs". Police do not hamper the demonstration which was "organized legally", according to Dodon.
Leader of Our Party Renato Usaty, who also serves as the mayor of Moldova’s second-largest city of Balti, told journalists that organizers will make a decision today about the expansion of the tent camp. "There are more than 100 tents near the parliament. Around 800 more people expressed readiness to join the demonstration today. We reserved places near the parliament building, presidential residence, government and other offices, but we will decide later where we will put up additional tents," he noted.
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.