“Fourteen years ago today, Moldova set out on a path of total degradation, of neglect for the legal principles of a state’s functioning, of restriction of democratic freedoms, and of a gradual liquidation of its own sovereignty”, declared the Moldovan Communist Party (PCRM) in a statement issued to mark the 14th anniversary of the 7 April 2009 events.

The party, which was in government at that time, with communist leader Vladimir Voronin as president of Moldova, says that “today no one wants to know who was behind the events”. But PCRM suggests it was those who subsequently came to power. “First of all, we are talking about the criminal-political groups that at the beginning of the 2000s lost power, and with it the possibility to steal from the few resources of the state”.

The Communists also claim that unnamed foreign structures were behind as well, because they were “unhappy with the fact that the PCRM managed to conduct an independent internal policy and a foreign policy based on the sovereign interests of the country”, and that “in the center of Europe a successful communist renaissance was taking place”. According to the PCRM, “the coup was professionally prepared”.

The commissions created to investigate the events of April 7, 2009 completed their work “without presenting even the slightest results”, the PCRM says, adding that those commissions were intended to compromise the communist government.

On April 7, 2009, a massive rally took place involving mostly young people, unhappy with the outcome of the election that gave the Communists a new majority in Parliament. It was alleged that over 600 people were ill-treated, detained and brutally beaten in the ensuing crackdown, with one death officially reported as well.