Some 523,000 pensioners have incomes below the minimum consumer basket, according to the Moldovan Union of Pensioners. During a press conference, representatives of the organization demanded that the government “takes measures” or face protests.

 

“Dear government officials, can you please answer a number of simple yet painful questions for someone who is hoping for a better and untroubled life, one they deserve and one guaranteed by law?”, asked the president of the Union Victor Leancă. According to him, about 193,000 pensioners who retired before 2000 have to wait until 2027 for their pensions to be re-calculated. “How do you think, Mister Prime Minister, will Grandpa Ion get to live that long?”

 

Victor Leancă says a minister raking in 30,000 lei a month in salary is little concerned about the situation of a pensioner who gets 1,000 lei or less. He went on to complain that the elderly often have to take care of grandchildren left behind by migrant parents and that pensioners are the worst hit when prices for staple foods like potatoes or sunflower oil rise. “Dear elderly, I think we’re starting to run out of patience. Our plates are empty. We put those spoons under our belts, and maybe it’s time we take them to the streets”, said Victor Leancă.

 

Nicolae Stratulat, member of the Union, says “the lies started pouring” back in 2016 after the presidential elections. Parliament has been hung since the latest legislative elections in February and there is “nobody who can answer questions”, “nobody doing anything to improve people’s lives, as promised”. 

 

Another member of the Union, Mihai Postovan, says that among all the problems faced by the elderly, the most serious one is the small pension, and the government is to blame.

 

Ion Tverdohleb, also a member, said the occasional insignificant pension raise is “absurd” when compared to the pace at which consumer prices rise, with pensioners unable to afford vegetables, let alone meat or milk.

 

Union member Olga Bârsan urged government officials to get out of their cars once in a while and take a stroll among ordinary people to observe how pensioners live.

 

Fellow member Maria Talpă also urged officials to visit the marketplace and see what pensioners can afford to put in their baskets. She personally has spent her 1,100 pensions on medicines and utility bills, and whatever is left she has to penny-pinch on food.