Members and supporters of the Renaissance Party held a rally outside the Presidential Palace on Tuesday, chanting “No to NATO, no to war!” They demanded the resignation of “the incompetent people who promote an agenda that is foreign to our values”.

Vlad Croitoru, a member of the party, declared that the president and the parliamentary majority are “wiping their feet off the Constitution”. “Maia Sandu is not the president of the people, she is the president of the war”.

Another activist, Artur Yevtushenko, declared that in the last three years the President’s Office has been “the embodiment of lies, the representation of dictatorship”. The protesters want the resignation of the president, PAS lawmakers and the Cabinet.

Iuri Vitneanski, member of the Renaissance Party’s board, said that the protesters came to express their dissatisfaction with what is happening now in the country, referring to the NATO military drills with the involvement of Moldovan troops, and with higher defense spending. Vitneanski says he is afraid that President Maia Sandu is preparing the country for war.

The protesters wielded placards reading “Moldova is a neutral country”, “No to war, yes to peace”, and “Moldova without NATO”.