Lupu's departure from PCRM surprises Communists, alerts Opposition

Comunist leader Vladimir Voronin says he wasn't aware of Marian Lupu's decision to quit his party. The former Speaker announced his departure shortly before Parliament started its sitting on Wednesday. “There's much work to do and no time to waste on statements”, Voronin declared crustily, adding that he was hurrying to see Mrs Greceanyi inducted as Prime Minister, transmite Info-Prim Neo. Commenting on Lupu's move, Communist MP Mark Tkaciuk said it was “a bad start for a new political career”. “There's some thinking to be done about Lupu's gesture, because he's not a simple man. We can't wait to see which party he's going to smarten up”, he said. Asked whether the PCRM sees Lupu's leave as a big loss, Tkaciuk said the loss of any member is important. “We regret that in such critical circumstances which require strength of will people become hysterical”, Tkaciuk added. But some Opposition leaders doubted that Marian Lupu would join any their parties. “I think that a citizen who's been a member of the PCRM for eight years, who promoted an ideology that goes against human rights, against the freedom of the press and the judiciary, can't be a member of the Liberal Party”, Liberal leader Mihai Ghimpu said. Serafim Urecheanu, president of the Moldova Noastra Alliance, thinks Lupu's leave is 'welcome but belated'. “Had he left the Communists' ranks with 30 MPs along or together with half of their territorial organizations, of course it would have been great. But he left alone and this makes me think that he is just out sniffing around”, Urecheanu said. He added that Lupu's membership in another party would do no more good for that party than the membership of former Prime Minister Vasile Tarlev for the Centrist Union. Lib-Dem leader Vlad Filat was less skeptical about Lupu's prospects: “I'm happy that, at last, Marian Lupu had the determination to go beyond words and act instead”. Filat also said his party is open to any new members willing to embrace the principles and the values of the PLDM. “The Social Democratic Party finds that the departure of Mr Lupu from PCRM, at a time when this party appears to be the most to blame for the economic, political, moral and spiritual crisis facing the Moldovan society, is also a long-awaited sign of the collapse of the Communist ideology and of the PCRM as the promoter of this obsolete ideology”, the party said in a statement. Explaining his decision to leave the PCRM, Marian Lupu invoked the rigidity in the party's decision making and his failed attempts to have a greater role in it.