​OUR PARTY LEADER NAMES HIS FORMER PARTNER “PLAHOTNIUC’S POCKET POLITICIAN”

Renato Usatii, Partidul Nostru [Our Party] leader and the Mayor of Balti, the country’s second-largest city, has named his former opposition partner, Party of Socialists (PSRM) Chairman MP Igor Dodon “a pocket politician of oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc”.

Usatii stated on Radio Moldova on Wednesday night that Dodon has no future in politics, and that everybody will see this soon.

In response to Dodon’s demand to apologize for the insult Dodon had inflicted a few days before [by claiming that Dodon had allegedly held a secret meeting with Plahotniuc while on Cyprus on March 4], Usatii stated that he can apologize only before the whole people of Moldova – “even on my knees, if need be”.

“I bear responsibility for every word I say. Very soon, everybody will come to see who Mr. Dodon is. He has demonstrated once again that he is nothing more than Plahotniuc’s haughty turkey-cock. Dodon changed his political convictions many a time, but he remains but a turkey-cock in Plahotniuc’s hen house. And he will be remaining there until Plahotniuc decides to grill him. I want to make it clear to all citizens of Moldova: I struggle against the criminal regime, and I shall never permit to replace one Plahotniuc with another one – with Dodon”, stated Renato Usatii.

He said that one hour before Dodon’s news conference on Wednesday, he phoned him and suggested discussing the situation and joint actions after the last Friday’s conclusion made by the Constitutional Court concerning a direct election of the President.

“Dodon said that at half past one he would hold a news conference, and “if you will yet have a desire to speak to me after the conference, let’s meet and talk”. I was shocked to hear such words”, said Renato Usatii.

Touching on the Constitutional Court’s ruling, he said it was a political decision, which interested forces tried to present as a legal one.

“All of the lawyers I have consulted, and many development partners, believe that the Constitutional Court passed that decision specifically against me because the Court changed only one provision in Article 78 in the Constitution. Until the year 2000, the Constitution had read that the presidential post may be aspired by any citizen aged not younger than 35. But now they have written another figure – aged 40, which means that I may not be a candidate at my age of 37. Conclusion: Plahotniuc wants to clear the road for Dodon and cover it with carpets to bring him to the presidency. This is a clear combination “Plahotniuc/Dodon”, resembling the November of 2014. I wonder where Dodon could be today, hadn’t Plahotniuc thrown us out of the election race 3 days before the parliamentary election”, stated Renato Usatii.

As already reported by Infotag, at the Wednesday’s news conference Dodon commented on the information provided by Our Party leader Renato Usatii on the local television – that Dodon had allegedly met with Vlad Plahotniuc while on Cyprus on March 4. Dodon stated that such unfounded accusations “are but the fruit of Usatii’s morbid imagination… Usatii stated he had evidence on hands, so he should present it. But he cannot have such evidence because I went to Cyprus together with my family for a rest. In such case, I demand a refutation of the rumors, and public apologies. Otherwise, me and the PSRM team will consider Usatii to be a coward and a windbag”, stated Igor Dodon.