FIRST SOCIALIST DEPUTY LEAVES PSRM, JOINS PMP

MP Stefan Gatcan has left the parliamentary Party of Socialists faction and joined the Pro Moldova group, he announced in social networks, where he placed his farewell application signed on June 28.

Gatcan offered the following motivation: he came to the Parliament with “high expectations”, but being a medical doctor by profession, he is now “stating with pity that the parliamentary majority is demonstrating the absence of progress in handling the pandemic and its failure to take efficient measures to save the Moldovan health system”.

Gatcan wrote he was “deeply impressed with the brevity, self-devotion and power, with which the new political Pro Moldova Party is waging its struggle for the interests of the country and its citizens”.

“I realize all the attacks and lies that will now be poured on me, but I shall not yield to pressure or threats. I shall be faithful to my convictions and to my voters in the Hincesti Raion”, wrote Gatcan.

He became a Socialist parliamentarian upon winning the by-election of March 15, 2020 in an electoral constituency in the Hincesti Raion. Gatcan was strongly supported by the Party of Socialists. The raion authorities did not declare a state of emergency due to the pandemic for the sake of holding that by-election.

Under the Democratic Party’s rule, Gatcan was fairly close to all-mighty country master Vladimir Plahotniuc. But after the tycoon’s flight from Moldova, Gatcan joined the PSRM. Now he has become the first Socialist to have left the PSRM, and the 15th in the Pro Moldova group. Before him, all the previous 14 deputies left the Democratic Party.

So, the PSRM has remained with 36 MPs and the Democratic Party – with 13. The governing coalition has thus remained with only 49 deputies and has ceased to be a majority in the 101-member Parliament of Moldova.