Moldovan Liberal Democrats, Liberals, European People's Party, Social Democratic Platform to hold talks on creating parliamentary majority

Chisinau, 5 January /MOLDPRES/ - The Liberal Democratic Party (PLDM), Liberal Party (PL), European People's Party of Moldova (PPEM) and members of the Social Democratic Platform today will hold negotiations on the creation of a parliamentary majority. The leaders of the pro-European parties made statements to this effect following a meeting with President Nicolae Timofti today.

After the meeting with the head of state, the PLDM acting leader, Valeriu Strelet, said the Liberal Democrats would take part in the formation of a parliamentary majority.

"PLDM is ready to participate in the creation of a majority and further insists on proposing the president a candidate for the office of prime minister. We will do our utmost to cooperate in an as short as possible period of time, as 14 January is the last day when the decree on nominating a candidate can be signed," Strelet said.

PL leader Mihai Ghimpu said he had discussed with the head of state the putting forward of a new candidate for the post of prime minister. "We are to meet the other parties, to speak about the formation of a majority. PL insists on a majority with the participation of PLDM, PDM (Democratic Party), PL and the Leanca group (PPEM); nevertheless, we believe that the Liberal Democrats must not come with conditions, as this may block the negotiating process. The Liberals will do their utmost, so that the snap elections be avoided," Ghimpu specified. 

The Democrats' leader, Marian Lupu, said that he "has already sent PLDM, PL and Leanca group invitations to negotiations; they accepted our request. We will not come to the today's meeting only as Democrats and former Communists, but we come with a formula of 35 MPs, as we form the Social Democratic Platform together. We hope that the discussions will be productive and take place in an as short as possible period of time," Lupu said.

PPEM leader Iurie Leanca said that "a new attempt to create a parliamentary majority committed to reforms and stability in the country is necessary. Today, we will continue the discussions and we hope to have already positive results on the days to come," Leanca said.      

The Party of Communists (PCRM) and Party of Socialists will be invited to consultations as well. 

On 4 January, a special parliament meeting, during which the candidate nominated for the office of prime minister, Ion Sturza, was to unveil the team and government's action programme, failed for lack of quorum, as only 47 lawmakers were present in the session hall.  Subsequently, the head of state started consultations with the parliamentary factions for the nomination of a new candidate.

(Reporter A. Plitoc, editor M. Jantovan)