Another group of members of the first Moldovan Parliament, lead by Anatol Plugaru and Alexandru Arseni, announced they would not attend the festivities organized in the center of Chisinau on the 25th anniversary of Moldova’s Independence. The former parliamentarians told a press conference at IPN that Independence Day brings them no joy because the country did not develop the way people envisioned in 1991.
“We created this republic, we signed the Declaration of Independence, we build the legal foundations and what we see today is very different from what we started”, said Anatol Plugaru. He says that celebrating the national holiday today would mean supporting the current government, which is organizing the festivities. “We don’t want to participate in this charade”, insisted Plugaru, adding that the former MPs cannot sit alongside the current political leaders.
According to him, the festivities should have been more modest because of Moldova’s financial troubles. Even if the military parade was indispensable, it should have involved only domestic troops, without international ones. Additionally, Plugaru is disappointed that the authorities did not invite to the event the veterans from the war on the Nistru River, the people who defended the independence, statehood and territorial integrity of Moldova.
Another member of the first Parliament, Alexandru Arseni, said that attending the military parade would be an insult to the people who elected them in the 1990s. “That’s why we will boycott this parade, this holiday. We have our tradition and we will do what we do every year, even when they try to stop us”, declared Arseni.
The former MP said he would meet with former colleagues and lay flowers at the statue of Stephen the Great, commemorating those fallen for Moldova’s independence. Afterwards, they will discuss about the current situation in the country.
Earlier, another group of members of the first Parliament held a press conference announcing they would not attend the Independence Day festivities. Anatol Plugaru and Alexandru Arseni explained that although they share the same opinion on this issue, the former are members of a political party and that is why they announced their positions separately.
