Only three deputies of the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia, who are members of the group of the Party of Socialists, came to the meeting with President Maia Sandu to stir things up. The rest posed some challenging but decent questions, said ex-Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Vlad Kulminski, who was present at the meeting of the President and the deputies. For their part, MPs representing the government and representatives of civil society said the dissentions between Chisinau and Comrat appear because the Autonomous Territorial Unit was offered too many privileges, IPN reports.
Vlad Kulminski said the dispute during the meeting of President Sandu and deputies of the People’s Assembly was caused by the Socialists who wanted to compromise the President’s visit to Comrat. A number of deputies demanded that the President should go to Russia to negotiate a better gas price.
“In the meeting with members of the People’s Assembly, 30 of the 33 deputies attending put some hard, challenging questions but in a very polite way. They showed respect for the Republic of Moldova and the office of President. But there were three deputies of the Socialist group who simply cried uninterruptedly. Such behavior towards the President is unacceptable. The meeting was justly interrupted. We should not put everyone in the same basket. There were persons who came with the intention of thwarting that meeting and of generating disputes,” ex-Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Vlad Kulminski stated in the talk show “Expertise Hour” on JurnalTV channel.
The representatives of the government said the people should not form general impressions about ATU Gagauzia based on statements made by some of the local elected officials.
“We should not form an opinion about all our citizens from the Autonomous Unit by listening to several provocateurs and shouters, who are often uneducated, from the People’s Assembly. For example, the number of parents who want their children to study in Romanian increased substantially. Many young people study at the University of Galati. Trade with Romanian started to develop slowly. But we are in the situation when the political message in Gagauzia is monopolized by a group of persons from the People’s Assembly,” said PAS MP Oazu Nantoi, noting that the law should be applied when it goes to national security and the central administration should have focused on the integration of the autonomous region.
Expert of the Institute for Development and Social Initiative “Viitorul” Igor Munteanu said that Gagauzia enjoys a set of privileges that go against the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova. This is an entity used by Moscow to promote its own interests.
“The relations between Chisinau and Comrat are as they are not because the citizens in Gagauzia are mean, but because we allowed contradictory powers to exist at the legal level. Things are vague equally for those from Gagauzia and for the central government. In the fiscal sector, only 8% of the region’s incomes are local taxes. The rest is our money that we transfer to them for them to satisfy their external recognition needs. A lot of laws adopted at the regional level are anti-constitutional. But we do not have the courage to take these proofs to the Constitutional Court and to have those decisions annulled. The Russian Federation never gave up the blackmailing and corrupting of the Gagauz elites,” explained Igor Munteanu.
On September 2, President Maia Sandu made a visit to Comrat. She met with deputies of the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia and gave a speech in front of students and lecturers of the Comrat State University. The visit didn’t include a separate meeting with the governor of Gagauzia Irina Vlah.
