Representatives of the organizational committee of the Civic Movement “Voice of the People” decided to put off the protest scheduled for March 15 in connection with the epidemiological situation related to the novel coronavirus. In a news conference at IPN, Andrei Baștovoi, one of the Movement’s representatives, called on their supporters to treat all authorities’ recommendations concerning the novel coronavirus with maximum seriousness. The new date of the protest will be announced later.
According to Andrei Baștovoi, they want to engage a number of personalities in this Movement so that they pronounce on the problems existing in the country. The Movement will not have a leader or a hierarchical structure and its legal organizational form will be decided later. The formation of a political party is excluded.
Andrei Baștovoi believes that civil society should make common cause so as to hold accountable the politicians who take into account only the own ambitions and interests and do not care about people’s problems. “The people trusted the representatives of the opposition, but these gave up struggling and only shout in Parliament,” he stated, noting that Moldova’s European integration course is very important. “We understand that this is our course as we are in Europe and are of European origin and no one can change us.”
Movement member Alexandru Arseni said that many public organizations mobilized to take part in the March 15 event, but this cannot yet take place. One of the problems that are to be discussed concerns the economic aspect. “A banal example: an owner whose cow produces 20 liters of fat milk and gives birth to a calf annually will keep this cow and will know how to manage those revenues further. He will not sell the cow. In the Republic of Moldova, we can compare this case with the scrap metal company “Metalferos”, which brings a lot of money into the budget. What does the current government do? It wants to sell it,” stated the professor. “The people should not allow this pseudo-privatization that is actually a theft.”
Student Ion Eșanu, a resident doctor, said that panic around the novel coronavirus should be avoided. “This virus existed earlier too. The humans after winter have lower immunity and suffer from avitaminosis. We should take into account the fact that this winter we didn’t have low temperatures that would have killed the viruses,” stated Ion Eșanu. According to him, measures should be taken to immunize the population, in particular the children and the elderly.
