Symbolic funeral march to see off dictatorial Communist Spirit held in Chisinau

Supporters of the initiative group “A Candle for the Communist Spirit”, mainly young people, took part in a symbolic funeral march held to say farewell to the dictatorial Communist Spirit on February 22, Info-Prim Neo reports. Organisers say the march was staged to mark seven years of Communist government and three years of the signing of the EU-Moldova Action Plan. The event started with a demonstration. Though the Chisinau Mayor General authorised the protest to take place in the Great National Assembly Square, it was held near the monument to Stephan the Great. The protesters refused to move to the Triumphal Arch on the proposal of the police, which blocked the access of the demonstrators and of the passersby to the Square. The police officers invoked that the protest hinders the activity of the Government officials. One of the demonstrators Oleg Brega told Info-Prim Neo that since the Communists came to power, the fundamental human rights are flagrantly violated. “Now, we are not allowed to move through the Great National Assembly Square, we do not have the right to hold assemblies and to express our opinions in the Square. The Square is now used for Voronin’s drinking bouts only. We are indignant. We want to condemn the Communism as well as the European integration. We will never become part of the EU with such a government,” Oleg Brega said. The protesters chanted slogans and delivered anti-Communist speeches. On a cloth with a painted coffin, the demonstrators wrote “Wake up, Romanians!”, “We have flags and symbols, Voronin has problems with his head”, “We disown Satan”, “Better dead than Communist” and other slogans. After several attempts to go through the Great National Assembly Square, the protesters marched towards the Central Cemetery located on Armeneasca Street, carrying a cardboard coffin in front of the procession. The marchers were forced by the police to move along pavements. At the cemetery, they threw the coffin and different Communist symbols (the hammer and the sickle, the red standard, the portrait of V. Lenin, the membership card of the Communist Party, the red scarf and others) in the rubbish bin, burying thus the Communist spirit. Afterward, the protesters marched to the office of the European Commission’s Delegation to Moldova to express their disagreement with the statements made by the head of the Political Department Paulo Berrizi, according to which Moldova made progress. “The European Union uses double standards, condemning the Communism and praising the Moldovan authorities simultaneously,” a protester said. The demonstrators left a wreath with a black ribbon carrying the inscription “Moldova’s Communist Future” at the entrance of the building. The organisers do not rule out that they could be arrested for the protest they staged.