Anti-Romania protest in Chisinau on National Day of Romania

About 20 young persons staged an anti-Romania protest in Chisinau in the morning of December 1, when Romania celebrates its National Day and 90 years of the Great Union of 1918. The young people, who refused to identify themselves, tried to hinder the laying of flowers to the monument to Stephan the Great and Holy, Info-Prim Neo reports. The young persons, who were mainly Russian speakers, positioned themselves in front of the monument, carrying placards with the inscriptions: “Go Home to Celebrate. We Celebrate on August 27”, “Do not Interfere with Moldova’s Internal Affairs”, “Stephan the Great is Moldova’s Ruler”, “Stop Financing Moldova’s Traitors”. One of the young men cried out through a bullhorn: “Our Romanian Brothers Behave Again like Masters”, “Romania’s Embassy Forgot about Decency”, “Go Away and Unite with Others” etc. The protesters said they are Moldova’s patriots. “We, Moldova's youth, are against union. We are in favor of Moldova’s integrity and sovereignty. We love our country and want no one to interfere in its internal affairs. We only defend our country, Moldova,” one of the young people told the reporters. The protesters tried to hinder the laying of flowers. The President of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Moldova, Stefan Uratu, had to make his way through the protesters in order to lay his bouquet to the monument. He tried to explain to the young people that they have the right to protest, but they should not violate other people’s rights. The protests were driven away by representatives of the Liberal Democratic Party (PLDM), who laid flowers to the monument to Stephan the Great. Officials of the Romanian Embassy, priests of the Bessarabian Metropolitan Church, representatives of the Liberal Party, members of the Romanian Christian-Orthodox Students Association (ASCOR), students and teachers of Romanian teaching schools in Transnistria and ordinary people laid flowers and wreaths at the monument afterward. Though following the protest from a distance, the Romanian Ambassador to Moldova Filip Teodorescu said he saw nothing. “I don’t know what happened as I was in preparation. When I came, everything was in order,” the ambassador told Info-Prim Neo. “Practically nothing in Moldova happens without incidents,” the PL leader Mihai Ghimpu told the reporters. “It is a pity, but the people in Moldova still have the Soviet mentality and do not understand what freedom is. The young people are also misled. Anyway, many things have changed since 1988,” Ghimpu said. Dressed in national clothes and carrying tricolors and icons, members of ASCOR of Romania and Moldova performed a dance around the monument to Stephan the Great. The young Christians sang patriotic and church songs. “We came to support the Romanians in Moldova, acknowledge the sacrifice of our predecessors, praise them for their merits and try to do good things,” said Cornel Ursachi, members of ASCOR from Buzau. In the afternoon, the Romanian Embassy and the Union of Plastic Artists of Moldova inaugurated the exhibition of Moldovan and Romanian contemporary plastic arts “December 1 – National Day of Romania”. It will be open until December 14 at the Exhibitions Center “Constantin Brancusi”. Starting at 16.00, the Liberal Party will hold a concert in the Square of the National Opera House, dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the Great Union. On December 1, 1918, the National Assembly in Alba Iulia declared the Union of Transylvania with Romania. This holiday, set after the 1989 Romanian Revolution, marks the unification not only of Transylvania, but also of the provinces of Banat, Bessarabia and Bukovina with the Romanian Kingdom, in 1918, the Union of Transylvania with Romania being the last event, sealing the unification of the country. After the events of December 1989, December 1 became the national holiday of Romania, the Union Day.