IGOR DODON AND PIRKKA TAPIOLA DISCUSS DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN POLITICAL QUESTIONS

Moldovan President Igor Dodon and Ambassador Pirkka Tapiola, Head of the European Union Delegation to the Republic of Moldova, met on Wednesday to discuss questions of Moldova’s domestic and external policy.

President Dodon wrote on his Facebook page afterwards that the interlocutors touched on a possible change of the electoral system in Moldova, on the ruling Democratic Party’s latest initiative on its struggle against the so-called “Russian propaganda”, bills concerning the legal status of the Gagauzia autonomous region, progress in the Transnistrian conflict settlement.

“I reaffirmed that the proposal on shifting to the mixed electoral system will be supported by the President and the parliamentary Party of Socialists. And what concerns the Venice Commission’s recommendations, we will try to take note of the Commission’s legal recommendations aimed at the improvement of the draft law. At the same time, I spoke out a position that any political approach from the Venice Commission’s behalf and its recommendations in this sense will not be taken into consideration”, wrote President Dodon.

The head of state voiced indignation about the Democratic Party’s legislative initiative “on prohibiting the Russian propaganda in Moldova”.

“I expressed my concern and indignation over this initiative which, under the disguise of the so-called “struggle against propaganda”, leads to restriction of the freedom of expression. I drew attention to the fact that this is not the first attempt of such kind. And each time such initiatives were subjected to severe criticism in the country and by the international community, including by the European Commission, which had expressed its disagreement with such initiatives before”, wrote the president.

Igor Dodon spoke out also for adopting 3 laws on improving the Moldovan legislation with an account of the special legal status of the Gagauzia autonomy. Before, these laws were repeatedly withdrawn from the Moldovan Parliament’s plenary agenda, although they had undergone all necessary legal coordination procedures before that.

“As for the Transnistria settlement question, I reaffirmed the common stance of the Moldovan leadership and our readiness to solve shortly a number of problems faced by the residents of both Dniester River sides”, wrote Dodon.

The Moldovan President regularly holds meetings with foreign diplomats in various formats. With Ambassador Pirkka Tapiola, Igor Dodon last met on April 7, when he told the diplomat about his decision to submit an application for equipping Moldova with the status of an observer in the Eurasian Economic Union [of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, EAES].