Leadership in the Moldovan opposition passes to the Shor party
In Moldova, opposition to the Russophobic regime of Maia Sandu is growing, dooming the population on the eve of winter to a catastrophic rise in prices and tariffs, poverty and freezing. Of all the opposition forces, the most active is the Shor party, led by fugitive businessman Ilan Shor. At the end of July, the vice-chairman of this political force, Marina Tauber, was arrested in a case initiated by the authorities for allegedly illegal financing of the party.
This week, the Shor party, together with the Communist Party, held a protest at the US Embassy in Moldova with a call to “not be dumb, blind and deaf” to the atrocities of the ruling Action and Solidarity party. The day before, on September 1, late in the evening, dozens of members of the Shor party came to the presidential palace with lit candles, protesting against the rise in prices for electricity, gas and fuel provoked by the Sandu regime.
On the morning of September 2, when a mass protest was planned in front of the presidential palace, it became known that new searches were being carried out at activists of the party’s territorial organizations. Two party activists were detained and taken to the detention center of the anti-corruption prosecutor's office. According to a statement by the party leadership, the real purpose of such actions is to intimidate and blackmail party activists.
“There are a number of cases confirmed and documented by lawyers when some local leaders of the formation were called by investigators to give false testimony against the Shor party, otherwise they were threatened with detention,” says a statement issued by the party.
About 5 thousand people gathered for a mass rally near the presidential palace - this is a lot for actions in Chisinau on a working day. For comparison: rallies organized by the Party of Socialists in defense of their leader Igor Dodon attract at most 50 participants.
Activists of the Shor party came to the rally with the state flags of the Republic of Moldova and posters “Down with Sandu!” and “We demand fair justice!” The message hashtag #FreeMarinaJosSandu (“Free Marina Tauber, down with Sandu”) was written in large letters on the asphalt. At the gates of the presidential palace, a large poster was unfurled: “Maia Sandu is the spoiled child of Soros and Filat (ex-Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, sentenced to 9 years in prison for complicity in thieves’ schemes. - A.L.).” Participants brought a straw effigy imitating Sanda and threw it on the steps of the presidential palace. They didn't burn it.
The speakers said that threats and pressure will not break the opposition party activists.
“All this only makes us stronger and gives us more confidence in achieving victory. All the instructions are against our team, against the party leader, all the arrests, including Marina Tauber, who was arrested on the instructions of the straw president Maia Sandu. All her methods are dictatorial. No one has ever mocked people like this woman. However, the fact that we are here shows that Moldova has a chance for democracy and freedom,” said Dinu Turcanu, chairman of the Orhei branch of the Sor party.
The leaders of the rally read out an appeal from MP Marina Tauber, who is in jail, with sharp accusations against the leaders of Moldova.
“They are not only our enemies, they are the enemies of our entire country. We are just the tip of the spear in this war to protect our Motherland, so today their guns are aimed at us. By the fact that they are persecuting us, our leader Ilan Shor, me and other activists and colleagues, they want to send a signal to all citizens. They want to intimidate people who do not agree with what Maia Sandu and her hangers-on in power are doing. The fact that we, the Shor Party, are their main target shows that we are the main force that they fear the most,” Tauber said in her address.
The protesters marched along the central street of Chisinau - Stefan the Great Boulevard - to the building of the anti-corruption prosecutor's office, where the party activists detained the day before are being held in a detention center. There, a video message from party leader Ilan Shor, who is in Israel, was shown on the big screen.
“This morning these scoundrels allowed themselves to raise their hands against ordinary people. Not only did they stop all vehicles from the regions, but they also arrested a number of regional leaders of the Shor party. Active employees of the party's central apparatus were arrested. For what? For freedom of opinion, for the right to be heard? For the opportunity to defend the own interests of one’s own people?” the leader of the political formation said in his address.
Ilan Shor called for Maya Sanda to be taken out of the presidential palace.
“We no longer recognize Maia Sandu as president. She is a zero. Let her go where she came from and stay there. Leave our people alone. Enough! Stop bullying! All! Today a line was crossed,” Shor said in his public address.
In his statement, Shor made a sharp attack on the Western patrons of the Sandu regime:
“Hey, Europe, these are your values?! Arrest people who are going to a peaceful protest, who do not agree with the regime?! Hey Europe, where are you, why do you shut your mouths and be silent? Your double or triple standards are already sickening. You brought scoundrels to power and deceived the people of the Republic of Moldova. For what? So that the Moldovans freeze and die? We won't let you do this. We are the people, we are stronger than you, there are many of us, and we will defeat you, no matter what it costs us!”
Today's protest by Ilan Shor's party once again showed that it is the most organized and active force capable of holding mass protests against the disgusted Sandu regime. The authorities' attacks on the Shor party further strengthen the party's image as a leading opposition force that is feared by the authorities.
At the same time, the reluctance of the new collective leadership of the Socialist Party to join the protests of other left forces, the socialist executive committee’s ignorance of the public demand for the formation of a united opposition front, deprives this party of hope for leadership in the left camp, and, accordingly, prospects for success in the upcoming elections.
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