The Romanian authorities on September 25 transferred €40 million to Moldova. This was the last tranche of the loan of €150 million provided by Romania to Moldova. According to the Ministry of Finance, the loan is used to finance costs planned in the 2017 state budget law. The loan is repayable in five years at an interest rate of 1.5% a year. The first two tranches of this loan, of €60 million and €50 million, were transferred in August 2016 and in February 2017.
The Central Election Commission (CEC) on September 26 approved the expenditure estimate for organizing and holding the plebiscite on the dismissal of Dorin Chirtoaca from the post of mayor general of Chisinau municipality. The organization and holding of the local referendum will cost the state 8.910,64 million lei. According to the CEC, the adopted decision will be submitted to the Government and Parliament so that these identify the necessary financial resources. In the same meeting, the Commission accredited the first national observers to monitor the new local mayoral elections scheduled for November 19, 2017.
The head of Dubasari district Grigore Polichinski was arrested at the Chisinau International Airport when he was returning from a vacation from Turkey on September 26. The functionary is accused of abuse of power, causing of considerable damage to the public interests and abuse of power with serious consequences. Both the Party of Socialists and President Igor Dodon expressed their indignation at the arrest of Grigore Polichinski, describing the act as intimidation of the local authorities before the parliamentary elections. Also, a group of councilors of the Dubasari District Council expressed their concern about the arrest, which they described as abusive and unfounded. The councilors requested that Grigore Polichinski should be set free and be investigated outside remand. On September 28, the head of Dubasari district was questioned in the presence of his lawyers and the prosecutors later issued an order for his release. But he was banned from leaving the country. The same day, the Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office charged him officially.
The local public authorities of Cimislia, Drochia and Ungheni districts will raise the requested financing from the Government’s intervention fund for alleviating the consequences of the mid-April snowfalls and the June 26 calamities. Financing from this fund will be also transferred to several institutions managed by the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Defense, which helped deal with the tempests. There will be disbursed financing totaling 9.5 million lei. A decision to this effect was taken by the Government on September 27. The villages of Cimislia district will receive over 3 million lei, while those of Ungheni district – 1.44 million lei. The Drochia District Council will get 462,000 lei, the Ministry of the Interior – 2.69 million lei, while the Ministry of Defense – 1.86 million lei.
The resignation of all the members of the Broadcasting Coordination Council and definitive release of the minibus driver, who was arrested after the September 17 protests and is investigated under arrest, are two new demands that were put forward in a new protest that was organized by the Great National Assembly Council on October 1. The participants in the protest made speeches and chanted slogans in front of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection and then marched to the head office of the public TV channel Moldova 1, where they again demanded an hour of airtime a week for the opposition. In front of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection, the leader of the Political Party “Platform Dignity and Truth” Andrei Nastase said that this place wasn’t chosen accidentally as the International Day of Older Persons is celebrated on October 1. This Ministry supported only anti-popular reforms of the government, which were aimed against the elderly people who made an enormous contribution to strengthening the Republic of Moldova as a state. The protest continued in front of the building of Moldova 1 channel, where there was a police cordon. The protesters expressed their dissatisfaction with the fact that the administration of the public TV channel didn’t accept the request to provide by an hour of airtime a week. Maia Sandu noted that those who must make sure that the people are informed correctly should be ashamed and that the public TV channel belongs to the people, not to the government. The protest organizers said the demonstrations will continue and the dates of these will be made public later. According to the General Police Inspectorate, the protest mounted by several political parties in front of the head office of Moldova 1 involved about 200 people. The protesters said the figure was much higher and the government intentionally placed obstacles to them so that the people could not get to the protest.
Selection by Elena Nistor
