Protests continue in Chisinau downtown for third day

Chisinau, 22 January /MOLDPRES/-Supporters of the DA Platform (Dignity and Truth), Socialist Party (PSRM) and Renato Usatii’s Partidul Nostru (Our Party) party continue protests in Chisinau for the third day in a row. Protesters rallied outside some administrative buildings and the headquarters of Teleradio-Moldova (TRM) public broadcaster. They voiced their disagreement with the investiture of the new government headed by Prime Minister Pavel Filip and asked for snap elections to be held.

DA Platform and PSRM leaders along with Renato Usatii joined their forces today into a joint rally. They urged citizens to stick out peacefully for their rights, reiterating their demand for snap elections.

“We demand for snap elections and we suggested a way to organise them. It is the desideratum citizens opt for,” PSRM leader Igor Dodon said. He urged citizens to avoid provocations and not damage state properties.

Andrei Nastase, one of DA Platform’s leaders, said regardless of their political color, forces must unite in order to make pressure on authorities and hold snap elections. He required Moldova’s development partners to not back the newly sworn government.

Renato Usatii said he obligatorily wanted to prove everyone that “people are not a herd liable to manipulation and corruption”.

Following several speeches given in the Great National Assembly, protesters headed towards the Constitutional Court (CC) asking for a response to the notification on the legality of Filip’s government PSRM filed on 21 January. Subsequently, protesters marched towards the headquarters of TRM public broadcaster and held a meeting with its leadership. During the meeting, protesters voiced their dissatisfaction with the fact that the public broadcaster did not stream the demonstrations, asking it to offer them an hour of broadcasting every evening, so that protesters could voice their claims.

TRM’s head, Mircea Surdu was discontent with the position expressed by the three politicians. He asked them whether they would give orders to the press once at the government, as they tried to do it today. “We cannot live stream protests because we lack appropriate technical equipment,” Surdu said.

Following the meeting with TRM’s leadership, the three leaders participated in a live talk-show. The protesters rallied towards the Defence Ministry afterwards.

As citizens were dissatisfied with the investiture of the government headed by Prime Minister Pavel Filip, demanding for snap elections, protests amplified in Chisinau on 20 January in the evening.

(Reporter A. Zara, Editor F. Galaico)