Dodon showed Sandu who is boss in Moldova
The Socialist Party of Moldova, in a situational coalition with two small groups of deputies, adopted a series of high-profile bills yesterday, infuriating the country's elected president, pro-Western Maia Sandu.
The Russian audience was primarily interested in the bills concerning the Russian language and television programs from the Russian Federation adopted in the second reading.
One of them secured the status of “great and powerful” as a language of interethnic communication. Now, at the request of citizens, civil servants must provide information in Russian, as well as respond to requests in Russian.
Pro-Western deputies fiercely resisted the adoption of this law.
"I am Russian! And the constitution does not prevent me from speaking Russian!” shouted Alexander Slusar, a representative of the Dignity and Truth party.
“General Vlasov was also Russian. Therefore, do not speak on behalf of all Russian-speaking people in the country. Nobody gave you this right. At most you can speak on behalf of the US Ambassador. Well, or on behalf of Plahotniuc...”, socialist Bogdan Tsydrea gave a sharp rebuke to his opponent.
The law on language will be supplemented by a bill on the translation of inserts for medicines into Russian. Now instructions in Russian will be issued by pharmacists in pharmacies at the request of customers.
Finally, the Parliament of Moldova voted in the second reading to lift the ban on rebroadcasting Russian information and analytical television programs in the country. It was introduced in 2017 under the pretext of canceling the retransmission of television programs from states that have not joined the Convention on Transfrontier Television. The pro-European authorities who adopted this law did not hide the fact that the main target was television programs of Russian channels.
The activity of Moldovan deputies was not limited to language initiatives. They abolished the previous rule, which provided for the issuance of government debt bonds to compensate for the theft of a billion stolen from Moldovan banks through criminal means in 2014 (the country’s government was involved in the scam). This was presented as the liberation of the people from obligations to thieves.
Having gathered once again closer to midnight, the deputies adopted laws concerning budget policy for the next year and lowered the retirement age to 62 years for men and 57 years for women.
This initiative did not go unnoticed in Russia.
“A natural question arises: if Moldova, which has practically no natural resources, found the strength to abandon the cannibalistic “reform,” then what prevents Russia, the richest country in the world, from doing this?” wrote Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov in his Telegram channel. .
Liberal political scientist Stanislav Belkovsky believes that lowering the retirement age in Moldova will be a strong argument against the unification of the country with Romania, which is advocated by pro-Western parties.
“True, this argument will only work if many Moldovan citizens who have already received Romanian passports really count on the state pension as a source of livelihood,” writes Belkovsky.
The adopted bills infuriated the pro-Western parties led by Maia Sandu. Observers believe that the “tractor Maidan” of farmers, as if with economic demands, in front of the parliament building was inspired to thwart the plans of the socialists.
“These thieves need to be pulled out of parliament - early elections! Those who have gathered today are not statesmen, they are impostors. They pass these laws in the middle of the night because they are afraid of the anger of the people. They need to be punished. Not a single one will leave,” Sandu threatens on his Facebook.
No one in Moldova doubts that Igor Dodon will promulgate all these laws in the last week of his presidency, thus fulfilling the promises made before his election in 2016. This will strengthen his position in the negotiations in Moscow, where he is going on the inauguration day of his rival Sandu on December 24.
True, pro-Western forces will try to repeal the laws through the Constitutional Court, which they control, but that will happen later.
In any case, the socialists and Dodon have made an excellent foundation for possible early parliamentary elections, which Sandu insists on. This is how Moldovan opposition politician Mark Tkachuk reads.
“The armored attack by the armored forces of the opposition did not confuse either the police or the Parliamentary majority. The Maidanophobia that had reigned until that day in the ranks of the socialists was replaced by firm confidence not only in the future, but for the next two and a half years.
If pro-Western parties suddenly become power, they will face the fate of sappers, who, as we know, make mistakes once in a lifetime. And such a deadly mistake would be any attempt to repeal or protest adopted laws - be it the law on lowering the retirement age, on the Russian language, on the billion. The level of populist significance of these laws is prohibitive. Behind each of these symbolic bills are tens and hundreds of thousands of voters, their interests, which cannot be interrupted by complex financial and statistical arguments,” Tkachuk wrote in his Telegram channel.
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