Tough exchange of replies over Vladimir Filat’s leaving of PD

No important member of the Democratic Party (PD) will follow Vladimir Filat, says the party’s leader Dumitru Diacov. Following the accusations brought by the MP Vladimir Filat, who left the party and announced his intention to set up a new political party, the PD leader, accompanied by the vice presidents of the PD and other party members, denied the existence of tensions inside the party at a news conference on Tuesday. “There are no conflicts of generations inside the Democratic Party,” Diacov said. According to him, Vladimir Filat was the spoiled child of the party and the accusations he brought against his former colleagues are beyond common sense because he was always supported. Dumitru Diacov said that he does not know if Filat’s unachieved ambition of becoming president of the PD made him leave the Democrats, but he did not rule out such a reason. Diacov stated he discussed with Filat not long ago and told him he will yield his post up to him in several years. The PL leader accuses his former colleague of working intentionally against the party, stressing that in 2005 he had agreed in secrete with President Vladimir Voronin to mediate all the negotiations with the Democratic Party. Diacov says that though he knew about this, he did not exclude Filat from the party in hope he will realize that his true friends are in the PD. Asked why, in such conditions, he put forward Filat for the post of Mayor of Chisinau in this year’s elections, the PD president invoked financial reasons. According to him, the party’s management thought of the candidacy of Ion Paduraru, but accepted Filat’s proposal because they knew that Filat will finance the election campaign in Chisinau by himself. At the same time, Diacov described Filat’s financial contributions to the party as modest. Speaking about Vladimir Filat’s assertion that the Head of Parliament Marian Lupu is going to leave the Communist Party, Dumitru Diacov said that this is an attempt to rouse the Communists again Lupu and to make sure that he will not create a party that will be in competition with his. Diacov says that he personally discussed with Marian Lupu, who expressed his indignation at Filat’s statements. Vladimir Filat announced his intention to leave the Democratic Party on September 13. The MP, according to Diacov, was also excluded from the parliamentary group of the PD.