Opposition MPs block the central rostrum of the Parliament

The MPs of the “Moldova Noastra” (Our Moldova) Alliance (MNA), as well as the majority of independent MPs blocked the central rostrum of the Parliament on Thursday, December 21 as a token of protest against the disapproval of the communists as regards the creation of a special committee that would deal with the examination of the way the Audiovisual Code was applied in the reorganisation of the municipal radio and TV stations “Antena C” and “Euro TV Chisinau”. At the beginning of the sitting, the MP Anatol Onceanu proposed the creation of this committee because, as he mentioned, this problem puzzled the public opinion and aroused concern among the diplomatic missions, created tensions in the dialogue of the Parliament with the civil society and the situation might result in a huge social-political dispute. The proposal was backed by the Social-Liberal MP, Oleg Serebrain. After the proposal did not gain the necessary number of votes, the MNA faction requested a break, after which they proposed to vote again this issue, warning that otherwise “the democrat MPs will block for 30 minutes the central rostrum”. Speaker Marian Lupu said there are no grounds for voting repeatedly the proposal, because this action will come in conflict with the Regulations. In retort, 20 MPs blocked the central rostrum and the communists solicited a break. After the break, the MPs who blocked the rostrum were still there. The communist MP, Dumitru Prijmireanu qualified this action as “an insolent behaviour” and proposed to suspend the live broadcasting of Parliament’s sitting. In reply to this, the MP Gheorghe Susarenco said that it is not correct to suspend the live TV transmission. “People must see what is happening here, and this is a kind of protest which is not prohibited by the law”, Susarenco said, who also qualified as incorrect the standpoint of the majority faction, which voted against the creation of the committee. The communist MP Victor Stepaniuc said that this action is “a show generated by the fact that the Audiovisual Code was enacted after all”, According to him, the 2 stations were not liquidated, they were reorganised according to the legislation, and the attempt of the MPs to interfere is a blatant violation of the law. The Democrat MP Dumitru Diacov said this action is generated by the fact that “those who controlled “Antena C” and “Euro TV” do not want to lose the stations, and they were replaced with other ones who want to take over them”. He stated that he does not understand why the municipal council “passed with the bulldozer over the staffs” and did not try to discuss this issue. Also Diacov said that he does not understand both the radical decision to block the rostrum and the one against the creation of the committee. After 30 minutes, the leader of MNA Serafim Urecheanu said that the mission of this action was to warn the public opinion about the violations occurred in the media field. The MP said that all the diplomatic missions and the international bodies will be informed about what is happening in Moldova in this field. On Friday morning, the opposition MPs will propose one more solution in order to unblock this crisis and if the government party will not agree, they threaten to pass to more stern actions.