Small class pupils to cram orthodox dogma, if PPCD reaches power

“The small class pupils must study religion as a dogma, fear not this word,” stated Eugenia Starcea, a candidate for the parliament on behalf of the People's Christian-Democratic Party (PPCD), on Thursday. “The children should believe verily, they will later think of whether God exists or not,” said the politician at a news conference at which the Christian-Democratic women talked about the PPCD's social plans, if this party gets to rule, Info-Prim Neo reports. However, the women from the PPCD consider the subject must not be imposed to children from non-Orthodox families. Teaching religion in schools is an older initiative promoted by the PPCD, but it has never been consecrated through some legal norm. To make easier the work of the Moldovan women, the PPCD wants the Government to buy them washing machines. The four women attending the conference, also running for the parliament, however shirked to unveil the mechanism of enforcing this idea, but have agreed with journalists suggesting running water pipes must be in place first. The Christian-Democratic female candidates also want the state to build 'social dwellings' for young families or to give them free plots of land to build houses on. Such promises have been intensely promoted in election campaigns in Moldova this decade, but have never been fulfilled. PPCD councilor from the Hancesti district council, Svetlana Chesari, has said it is necessary reform the banking system in Moldova in order to decrease the loan interests from 27% to 5%. The news conference was conducted by Monica Babuc, the president of the Christian-Democratic Ladies Society, who said the PPCD included the largest number of women in its list – 36 out of 103. The Central Election Commission registered the PPCD's list of candidates on February 10 as the party will be on position 4 on ballots. In the elections of March 6, 2005, the PPCD got 9.07% of votes and 11 seats in the parliament.