CHISINAU, August 3. /TASS/. Moldovan President Maia Sandu, and the ruling Party of Action and Solidarity, which controls the government, are leading the country towards disaster, former Moldovan president and Communist Party leader Vladimir Voronin said.

According to Voronin, attempts to abolish language and history, economic mishaps and the mass exodus of young people from the country are evidence of this. "Everything that has been shaped here for centuries is being brushed aside, all that remains is European integration, talk about NATO, and most importantly, talk about Romania," the NOI media outlet quoted Voronin as telling a party plenary meeting in the town of Calarasi.

"It is alleged that the only way to get out of this quagmire is to unite with Romania, and as soon as possible," he said. The former president accused the authorities of seeking "to abolish the Moldovan language, the history of Moldova, as well as of failures in the economy and the social sector."

"Such chaos, such lawlessness, such helplessness among those who assumed responsibility for the country and are now leading it to disaster. Social issues are on hold, the indexation of pensions does not match the level of inflation, and, consequently, the law on pensions is being violated. People are fleeing the country, and these are mostly young people; the country is being depopulated. We are facing some kind of nonsense: there is a country, but no population. There is no one to work in the country, and there is no work.... The educational system is destroyed, medicine is corrupt, the judicial system is rotten. This is already a reality," the former president emphasized.

Last summer, protests started in Moldova, organized by the opposition, which accused Sandu of causing living standards to decline and being unable to deal with the sharp economic crisis. Last year, inflation in the country exceeded 30%, while electricity prices rose threefold, gas tariffs grew by a factor of seven within a span of two years, and the prices of food, services and other goods also skyrocketed.

On her part, Sandu accused the masterminds of the protests of plotting a coup, while the Constitutional Court banned the Sor opposition party. Opposition TV channels were shut down, and criminal cases were launched against opposition leaders.