The participants in the protest staged by the Civic Platform “Dignity and Truth” voted for the dismissal of the country’s administration and for holding early parliamentary elections next March at the latest. These adopted the Proclamation of the Great National Assembly Square, which says that President Nicolae Timofti should resign, while the head of state should be elected directly by the people. The participants also demanded dismissing and punishing those who directly or indirectly took part in the stealing of the €1 billion from three Moldovan banks, IPN reports.
The people who came together in the central square of Chisinau, in number of about 100,000 according to the organizers, chanted that they want the country back under the people’s control and that the government should resign. The protesters chanted the name of former minister of education Maia Sandu as a person whom they would prefer as a national leader.
Political analyst Igor Botan, a member of the Civic Platform “Dignity and Truth”, said before the crowd that by the four large-scale protests mounted until now, the population re-launched the protests as a mechanism of exerting pressure on the government. He added that the international recognition of the fact that Moldova turned from a ‘success story’ into a ‘captured state that is on the edge of a precipice’ is the result of the government of the so-called pro-European coalition. “It’s time to take the country out of the captivity of the corrupt oligarchy,” he stated.
Platform member Vasile Nastase noted that everything will be different after the September 6 protest, while the events that will follow will be very well planned so that the indignant people do not leave the Great National Assembly Square until their demands are satisfied. “We will protest until these bandits leave,” he said.
Nastase added that the people want early elections and they will not repeat the made mistakes. “We will generate a political alternative so that upright people are chosen in the early elections. We demand the resignation of Nicolae Timofti, who is not our President. We want the head of state to be elected by the people. The MPs must enjoy no immunity at all,” he said.
Other members and supporters of the Platform accused the government of usurping the power in the state, naming this the most serious crime, and of organizing a genocide by appropriating €1 billion from the national banks, which led to a rise in prices and tariffs and to deeper poverty.
The Assembly chose the Council of the Great National Assembly and the Intermediation and Representation Group whose duty is to discuss with the government and to request fulfilling protesters’ demands. The Group members handed over the list of demands to Prime Minister Valeriu Strelet, who invited them to discussions that were to take place in several hours. The protesters turned down the invitation because they wanted the discussions to take place in the Government Building, not at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, as the Premier suggested.
The participants decided to stage protests on a permanent basis and put up a number of tents in the central square of Chisinau, creating the “Town of Dignity and Truth”.
