The Gender Equality Platform expresses its profound disagreement with the statement assumed by President Igor Dodon, who, in a public posting on a social networking site, described the liberalism, tolerance and gender equality as “false teachings” imposed on the citizens of the Republic of Moldova. The Platform asks for the President’s personal reaction to these statements, which actually represent deviation from the constitutional norms, IPN reports.
In an open letter of to President Igor Dodon, the Platform says the Head of State, by the oath taken in the investiture, pledges to obey and promote the given values by respecting the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova, which clearly and unconditionally stipulates the character of democratic and multiethnic state of the Republic of Moldova, with the following supreme values: rule of law, civic peace, human dignity, rights and freedoms, free development of human personality, justice and political pluralism. In continuation, Article 16 of the Constitution provides that the respect for and protection of the person is a key duty of the state and that all the citizens of the Republic of Moldova are equal before the law and the public authorities, regardless of race, nationality, ethnicity, language, religion, sex, opinion, political beliefs, wealth or social origin.
“We consider the President’s statement undoubtedly runs counter to the supreme constitutional values and is thus unacceptable in the context of the commitments made by the senior public authorities of the country as to their mission to build a democratic state, where the personal freedoms and human rights, including the freedom of religion, gender equality and tolerance for the others, are guaranteed and respected,” reads the letter.
In a message posted on Facebook on February 25 in connection with the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, President Igor Dodon wrote: “We, the Moldovans are an Orthodox people. Our grandparents and ancestors have kept and promoted this faith for centuries. Currently, attempts are being made to lure us with such false teachings as liberalism tolerance, gender equality…”.
Shortly after the posting was published, the President’s secretary Ion Ceban made a clarification, saying a “regrettable mistake” was made and Igor Dodon’s posting on Facebook hasn’t been coordinated with the President. “Regrettably, the President’s tight program does not allow him to every time personally manage his Facebook page and a regrettable mistake was thus made in the text of the posting that wasn’t coordinated with the President. Therefore, we withdrew the thesis that hurt the feelings of a number of distinct groups of society. I apologize to those who felt themselves hurt by the regrettable mistake in the posting,” wrote Ion Ceban. The fragment that aroused criticism was excluded from the posting.
