Renato Usatii, the leader of the Partidul Nostru [Our Party], maintains that the actions by Minister of Justice Oleg Efrim, “who has personally ordered to deny registration to the new party”, are but an outrageous violation of the Moldovan legislation – “an overt lawlessness, which will trigger an analogous lawlessness” from behalf of the emerging new organization.        

Speaking at a news conference at Infotag today, Renato Usatii promised that next week the party will organize “a grandioso march to the Ministry of Justice building, if only the party registration fails to take place”.    

“We are not going to organize a second Kiev-type Euro-maidan [square] here. This will be a peaceful action of protest – with only slight deviations from the law”, explained Usatii.       

“If Oleg Efrim, obeying to his party masters, violates the law, then why Partidul Nostru activists cannot express to the whole country their opinion that what the Minister of Justice is doing is but a delirium ?” wondered Renato Usatii.    

At the news conference, journalists were surprised to see and hear two officials from the Ministry of Justice – Director of the MoJ Department of non-commercial organizations [in charge of registering political parties] Elena Gritco and Department consultant Nina Cereteu, who stated that they had worked with the statutory documents submitted by Partidul Nostru, examined them carefully and revealed no deviations from legislation.    

Gritco said that the Department recommended Minister Oleg – repeatedly and in a written form – to permit the registration of Partidul Nostru.   

“Instead of hearing the voice of reason, the Minister of Justice accused us of our personal adherence to Renato Usatii’s organization and, accordingly, of our being politically partial. I am stating publicly that I belong to no political party whatever, and that for the 5 years I have been heading the ministerial department, I have been driven exclusively by the letter of the law”, stated Elena Gritco.     

The two women confirmed that they had submitted resignations from the ministry because they disagreed with the ministerial decision concerning Partidul Nostru and, essentially, because they came across an unprecedented pressure that was put on them by the MoJ leadership for their refusal to sign the MoJ conclusion to deny registration to the new party.   

Renato Usatii stated he was strongly impressed that Moldovan state structures still have principal professionals, who are brave enough to refuse to fulfill the illicit decisions of their chiefs “who were placed on their high ministerial posts thank to party quotas” – the notorious “algorithm” [of the division of ministries and other essential state structures between the constituent parties of the ruling Coalition for Pro-European Governance (CEG)].      

Usatii promised to take under his protection “these competent and honest lady lawyers”.  

He said that from the very beginning, it was totally clear that the only reason of registration denial was the need to exclude this new party from the electoral race.   
 
Last week, the Ministry of Justice denied registration of the amended charter, governing bodies and symbols of the Partidul Nostru. Renato Usatii explained the media then that the reason of the denial was item 10.5 in the party charter.   

“This item says that a party congress must take place NOT LATER than 2 months after the corresponding decision taken by the party’s National Council. Well, the Council held its sitting last February 17, and a party congress was held on April 13 – all within the charter requirements. But Minister of Justice Oleg Efrim interpreted that norm of the party charter in his own way – that a congress may be convened only 2 months AFTER the Council sitting. I think that Minister Efrim is fulfilling direct orders given to him by his [Liberal Democratic] party boss Vlad Filat”, said Renato Usatii.          

Infotag’s dossier:   On April 13, 2014 successful man of business Renato Usatii was elected Chairman of the People’s Republican Party, which was headed previously by Nicolae Andronic. That decision was taken by a PRP congress, which decided also to rename the organization into Partidul Nostru – Our Party. Renato Usatii was born in Falesti town in 1978. He graduated from the foreign languages department of Balti State University, worked at the Chisinau Airport, and then as a public catering engineer at the National Railroad Company of Moldova (CFM). Since 2005, Usatii has been heading the Russian corporation of ZAO VPT-NN (in Nizhniy Novgorod city) that specializes in the production of heavy equipment based on the usage of hard-alloy materials, as well as in trading motor vehicles, computers, household equipment, production of automobile parts etc.