The Appeals Court’s decision to suspend Sergey Filipov from the post of mayor of Taraclia town is a method used by the current government to remove the inconvenient mayors. The issue was discussed in the talk show “Politics” on TV 7 channel, IPN reports.

Ex-MP Stela Jantuan considers a precedent was set to scare the other mayors who do not form an alliance with the Democratic Party. “This party set the goal of becoming the most influential one in the Republic of Moldova and thus uses instruments that are far from being democratic, including blackmail,” she stated.

Executive director of the Congress of Local Authorities of Moldova Viorel Furdui said the case of Filipov is a dangerous one. “Moldova has never witnessed such open pressure on the local elected officials as that exerted now. The mayors who are inconvenient for the government are persecuted,” he stated.

In the same program, Sergey Filipov said that he took the decision to fell trees for which he was convicted not alone. “The given decision was adopted by the votes of all the 23 local councilors. I started to be persecuted when I opposed electing Marian Lupu as chairman. Afterward I expressed opposition to a number of policies of the government,” he noted.

The Cahul Appelas Court convicted Sergei Filipov for cutting down a number of trees in the square before the Taraclia mayor’s office. He was fined 8,000 lei and banned from holding public posts for two years.

The Head of the EU Delegation to Moldova Pirkka Tapiola criticized this decision as politically motivated. “I’m confused and disappointed. I discussed with the other European ambassadors in Chisinau and we are very concerned,” he wrote on a social networking site.