Chisinau, February 27 (Infotag). The oppositional parliamentary Social Liberal Party claims the Communist authorities in the localities intimidate and persecute SLP mayors and members of local councils – the councilors.

SLP leader MP Oleg Serebrean stated at a news conference in Infotag today there exist 2 types of the opposition in Moldova – one that has managed to find a common language with the Communists, and the other opposition is the one persecuted by the authorities.

“Our mayors and councilors work in an atmosphere of a constant psychological pressure, and even ungrounded criminal accusations are put forward against them. Not a single one of the 30 town and village mayors, elected on the SLP ticket, has so far received whatever assistance from the State”, said Oleg Serebrean.

The Mayor of the Balasinesti community in the Briceni raion, Chairman of the Association of SLP Mayors and Councilors Vasile Asimionesei stated at the news conference that his numerous written appeals to the President, Government and Parliament remain without a reply.

“However, there was one telephone call from Mark Tkachuk, the Home Policy Advisor to the Moldovan President, who said I would never receive whatever help from the State, so there is no point wasting time on sending letters and asking questions”, said the Mayor.

Mr. Asimionesei said that several criminal actions had been brought against him. For instance, one of them was started on charges that a local economic operator allocated means to organize a festive dinner on the occasion of opening a monument to Stefan cel Mare [Moldova’s medieval king] in the village.

“And recently, somebody tried to fabricate a new case against me on charges of my accepting a bribe. On February 20, a Sergiu Stanilescu came to my work office and said he is ready to pay a certain sum for my help to let him become the owner of 10 hectares of land belonging to our Primaria [village executive committee]. I called police, and officers from Briceni town arrested the visitor. Several days later I learnt the man had been set free”, said the Balasinesti Mayor.

The Social Liberal Party has the 4th largest number of mayors and local councilors among all Moldovan political formations.