Moldovan journalist about the Kishinev developments
In recent days, the world spotlight was the incident in the capital of Chisinau, Moldova. The long-lasting protests reached the peak on 20 January. The Parliament approved the composition of the new government and the prime minister’s candidate – Pavel Filip from the Democratic Party. This incited the fury of the protesters gathered outside the parliament building, they crossing the police wall stormed the parliament building. There were clashes between protesters and the police forces. Moldova’s domestic political developments in the foreign press, especially in the Russian media, were coverage as existing fight of pro-Russian and pro-European forces. Russian media was stressing that people have come out to the streets with calls that they want to be a part of the same union with Russia.
In an interview with “Aravot”, journalist of Moldovan Agora.md news site, Stefan Grigorita, who had covered the whole course of developments, said that the Moldovans fight to liberate the country from corruption rather than to pass to Russia’s or Europe’s side. “A new government was elected. It was a coalition consisted of “pro-European” called political parties and very free deputies, who were bought by the Communists and the Liberal Democrats. People were protesting against it.” Stefan Grigorita confirms the hypothesis circulating in the international media that the new government is formed under the influence of one of the Moldovan oligarchs, Vladimir Plahotniuc, who had also nominated his candidacy for the post of prime minister but the president has not accepted it.
According to our interlocutor, this oligarch has bought the majority vote of the MPs. My interlocutor believes that many people think that the protests were for passing to the Russian side as there were representatives of pro-Russian forces among the organizers, represented by the Chairman of “Our Party” Renato Usatii. “Half an hour later, the protesters left the Parliament building, they did not want to damage it because it is a state institution. There was no sense to damage it as it was built on our money,” says Stefan Grigorita. Now, there are peaceful demonstrations in Chisinau. The desire and the demand are to hold early parliamentary elections this spring and to get rid of the corrupt parliament. S. Grigorita thinks that there will be no early elections, the new parliament will be elected in the fall.
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Referring to the response by the international community about the incident in the country, Moldovan journalist says, “The European Union welcomes the new government. This is actually an interesting position because they say that this is a new government that will bring stability with it. They are making calls for peace, saying that the new government shall negotiate with the protesters, find common grounds, push Moldova forwards and similar diplomatic things. The same call was made by the United States.” According to Stefan Grigorita, Russia’s “silence” is interesting. “It is interesting that the Russian embassy has not issued a statement until now. Actually, Russia’s strong stance is missing in Moldova, but their silence is really interesting,” says he.
HRIPSIME HOVHANNISYAN,
“Aravot” daily
