PEOPLE WILL VOTE AGAINST EUROPEAN INTEGRATION AT REFERENDUM – MOLDOVAN PRESIDENT

President Igor Dodon commented on the initiative of Speaker of the Parliament Andrian Candu to organize a referendum on Moldova’s European integration. He wrote on his Facebook page that in case of conducting such a plebiscite, the answer will be negative.

At the Thursday’s sitting, 54 of 101 MPs voted for introducing in the Constitution of a provision that the European integration represents a strategic goal of the Republic of Moldova’s development. For the adoption of amendments to the Main Law, votes of two thirds of MPs are necessary – not less than 67 votes.

“Today, we witnessed the level of support the European integration has. Even the parliamentarians, who call themselves pro-European, do not believe in the European vector anymore and do not want to fix it in the Constitution. It is wrong when the ideology of separate parties become an ideology of the whole state, because this is antidemocratic and violates the principle of idea pluralism”, Dodon stated.

He reminded that now, according to the Constitution, this issue cannot be voted in the Parliament for a period of a year.

“After the February 24, 2019 parliamentary elections, as we all understand, there will be no more pro-European majority”, the president wrote.

According to him, the proposal of Parliament Speaker and the DP to conduct a consultative referendum proves that they resort to double standards.

He reminded that last year they declined the consultative referendum, proposed by the president, on a number of initiatives: canceling of the law on the billion, parliament dissolution and early elections, reduction of the number of MP seats to 71 from 101, introduction of the discipline “History of Moldova” in the school curriculum.

“However, we are not afraid to come for consultation to the people and we accept the DP challenge. Both the Presidential Administration and the Party of Socialists are sure that the answer at the referendum will be negative, as over 9 years of the so-called pro-European governance, citizens do not trust neither the right-wing parties, nor what the pseudo-European parties propose, while the referendum will confirm this alignment of forces in the society”, the President stated.

He maintains that people want a weighted external policy, good relations with the East and the West; with Russia, China, Europe and the US; with Turkey, the European Union and the Eurasian Union, with other partner countries.

“I will stand exactly for such a political approach – in the name of the country’s interests”, Dodon stressed.