A member of the previous Moldovan Parliament, Grigore Petrenco [an ex-Deputy Chairperson of the Unified European Left group in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe], who currently heads “Our Home is Moldova” party, maintains that the Moldovan authorities are doing all in their powers to withdraw the OHM from the local election campaign.

 

The OHM leaders stated at a news conference at Infotag today that one of the bright examples of using the administrative resource for achieving this political goal was the recent prohibition by the Chisinau Primaria [city government] to use OHM texts on billboards in town.

 

“Our texts on billboards and posters read contrary to what Mayor Chirtoaca’s Liberal Party has written at every step in the city – that “It will be better in the European Union”. But we wrote: “It will be better without Chirtoaca”, “It will be better without Plahotniuc” and “It will be better without Filat” – all in two languages, not only in Romanian like the Liberals did. However, the Chisinau Primaria issued an order signed by Chisinau Deputy Mayor Nistor Grozavu, who prohibited us to use such text. Grozavu wrote, “Such texts just cannot be approved by the Primaria”. We can’t understand what relation the city administration has to the electoral procedure. Who has invested it with powers to act as a censor?” wondered Grigore Petrenco.

 

He believes that Chisinau is presently losing to all capitals of FSU republics by a majority of economic, technical, organizational, social and other parameters.

 

“Take Minsk, Kiev, Astana or Tashkent for examples. All of them are to the east of our pseudo-Liberal-Democratic and pro-European Chisinau, the more so that Chisinau loses to the capitals of the Baltic States – Riga, Tallinn and Vilnius. I think that Dorin Chirtoaca must come to realize all this and should leave the post [which he came to in 2007 at the age of 28]. I understand very well that the decision to ban the OHM billboard texts was taken not by Chirtoaca but by functionaries in the Plahotniuc’s headquarters. But while our texts are examined at the c Chisinau Constituency Election Board, the OHM will be canvassing under a slogan of “It will be better without thieves”, said Grigore Petrenco.

 

…AND SAYS GERMAN BUNDESTAG DEPUTY VISITED MOLDOVAN POLITICAL PRISONER IN CHISINAU

 

A deputy of the German Bundestag and a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Andrei Hunko, has visited the Grenada portal editor, ex-Communist Pavel Grigorciuc, who is under house arrest in Chisinau, Grigore Petrenco stated at the news conference in Infotag on Monday.

 

The OHM leader reminded that the German parliamentarian is the author of the PACE Declaration that was addressed to the Moldovan authorities last January with a demand to free Pavel Grigorciuc and Communist Party activist Mikhail Amerberg, who were in a remand prison then.

 

“The Declaration was signed then by more than 20 PACE deputies from 15 countries, including the heads of 4 groups (factions) of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. But that document was in fact ignored by the pseudo-European authorities in Moldova. It was only in spring that Grigorciuc and Amerberg were placed under house arrest. On May 15, however, Judge Svetlana Viscu of the Sectorul Centru Court of Chisinau extended their house arrest despite the Resolution of the Chisinau Constituency Election Board reading that Grigorciuc and Amerberg are running for the Chisinau Municipal Council [city legislature] as OHM candidates”, said Grigore Petrenco.

 

He stated that the party is thus being restricted in its canvassing activities by the incumbent authorities, and citizens Grigorciuc and Amerberg are not permitted to use their constitutional right to be elected and to elect.

 

Grigore Petrenco is sure that the Grigorciuc-Amerberg case will be included into the PACE’s nearest monitoring report on Moldova. As for the violation of the political prisoners’ constitutional right to stand for elections, Bundestag deputy Hunko will take measures to state to European officials that the Republic of Moldova practices political repressions, he said.