CHISINAU, March 29. /TASS/. Opponents of Moldova’s reunification with neighboring Romania will launch mass protests in the capital Chisinau in the near future, the leader of the Party of Socialists Igor Dodon told reporters on Monday.
The politician, whose party has a major faction controlling a quarter of seats in the parliament, commented on reports that an informal parliament, the Council of the Country 2, was set up on Sunday in Chisinau in order to draw up a program of reunification with Romania.
"We have declared a nationwide mobilization against unionists [supporters of Moldova’s unification with Romania] who have planned an unprecedented attempt on the Moldovan statehood. In the coming weeks, we will hold the most massive rally in Chisinau in support of statehood and sovereignty of Moldova," Dodon said.
Ahead of the rally in the capital, protests will take place in the country’s regions, including in Gagauzia on April 2. Under the constitution, this autonomous region has the right to secede from Moldova in case of its reunification with Romania, he said. The head of Gagauzia, Irina Vlah, earlier told reporters about the upcoming protest.
Renato Usatii, the leader of the Our Party and the mayor of the second largest Moldovan city Balti, opposes the plans for unification with Romania. "People are gathering in downtown capital who propose a roadmap of destroying the state and create a liquidation council, in fact. All this is impossible in any independent country, except for Moldova," he said.
On Sunday, some 1,725 delegates from Moldova and Romania held a meeting in Chisinau during which they adopted a declaration of unification with Romania and set up an informal parliament similar to the Council of the Country that voted for the republic’s absorption into Romania in March of 1918. At the meeting in Chisinau, the participants decided to "prepare for the unification of two Romanian states" by March 2018 to mark the 100th anniversary of those events.