CHISINAU, October 12. /TASS/. Activists of Moldova’s Our Party, who demand resignation of the country’s top officials, plan to block the national parliament, which is to gather for its first autumn session on October 15, the party’s leader Renato Usatii said on Monday.
Usatii, who organized a news conference at a tent camp put by the party activists in front of the parliament building, apologized for the problems the city dwellers might have had earlier in the day when his party activists blocked traffic in the centre of the city.
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He criticized Chisinau’s mayor, Dorin Chirtoaca, who called on the country’s leaders earlier on Monday to react to the on-going protests, which, ins words, posed a threat to the country’s integrity.
"We have agreed our actions with no one, we have not asked any permits from the mayor’s office. The authorities say it is illegal. But when people take to the streets to say ‘no’ to the ruling regime, it is their right and it is absolutely legal," Usatii said.
Mass protests have been held in Chisinau for more than a month. The opposition, which calls Moldova "a country seized by oligarchs," demands resignation of the country’s top officials and insists on early parliamentary elections and direct elections of the president. Central Chisinau has literally turned into a tent camp divided between two opposition forces, the Party of Socialists and Our Party on the one hand, and the Dignity and Truth (DA) Civil Platform on the other. Both demand resignation of the country’s leaders and early elections. The DA Platform however stands for European integration and accuses the current authorities of discrediting this slogan by large-scale embezzlement. The Party of Socialists and Our Party stand for Eurasian geopolitical vector and closer relations with Russia. The opposition leaders are refusing to join their efforts but agreed not to hamper each other.
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 came under severe criticism from foreign donors, including the European Union and the World Bank, which subsequently suspended their financing of the republic.