Members and supporters of the Party of Socialists on January 19 protested in front of the National Bank of Moldova, demanding that Governor Dorin Dragutanu should resign because he is to blame for the depreciation of the leu, IPN reports.

Socialist MP Ion Ceban told the journalists that sums of billions of lei were taken out of the central bank in order to hide the thefts at other banking institutions of the country.

MP Vlad Batrancea said the National Bank employees include the accomplices to the crimes against the people, who do everything for the people to be poor and for the elderly people not to be able to buy the basic food products and medicines.

“Dragutanu is an accomplice to a multitude of violations committed on the currency market of Moldova. This government set a number of anti-records. The euro passed the level of 19 lei and will soon go over 20 lei,” he stated.

The protesters chanted that the thieves must be jailed and that the currency market must be stabilized, while the rise in prices must be stopped.

Today, the National Bank announced an exchange rate of 19.51 lei per euro and of 16.86 lei per U.S. dollar.