A new leftist party headed by a former top Communist member has appeared on the Moldovan political landscape. The People's Socialist Party of Moldova held its first formal assembly on Saturday, October 29, Info-Prim Neo reports. “The existing leftist parties have fallen short of their obligations and these forces needed to be consolidated in recent years. But regretfully there is the Party of Communists which monopolized this segment and has failed to promote a well-thought-out leftist strategy”, declared Victor Stepaniuc, the leader of the new party. According to him, the party will promote a democratic and reformative socialism like the one practiced in Norway, Spain, Portugal, France or Sweden. “We will support co-operative forms of property, the small and mid-sized business. We have a program to support economy, modernize education and science, and a policy to support the youth”, stated Victor Stepaniuc. Victor Stepaniuc, seen as the ideologist of the Party of Communists for many years, defected from PCRM in December 2009 over disagreements with the party's leader Vladimir Voronin. In April 2011, assisted by a group of politicians and economists, he decided to found the People's Socialist Party. Presently it has over four thousand members.