The Liberal Democratic coalition in Moldova seems to be each time less democratic in its activities and statements. Moldova's interim President Mihai Ghimpu has recently condemned communism as a form of totalitarism.

The European Left deeply condemns the government’s attitude, declaring that this behaviour goes against the Human Rights Charter and international standards: “Today various Left wing, Communist, Labour and "Red-Green" parties are functioning all over Europe, members of which are represented in national Parliaments, several European institutions such as the European Parliament, the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly and others. With this in mind, the Moldovan government's intentions to ban the name “communist” and communist symbols are of an anti-democratic nature, and will limit rights to associate and elect, freedom of expression, and the right to represent and to be represented”.

Moreover, the government is categorically denying citizens who support the Party of Communists their free choice. It is well known that the Party of Communists is the largest party in Moldova (48 members in 100 seats), and almost half of all voters have been voting for it over 12 years.

Besides, legitimate questions about the willingness and capability of the current Moldovan government to recognize European law and standards as a precondition for any serious treatment of the country's application for EU membership are being raised.

The ruling coalition, repeatedly ignoring the recommendations of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe as regards solving the political crisis, continues under various pretexts to postpone dialogue with the opposition and the setting of the date for elections.

Along with the continuous intimidation of media that questions current government policy, human rights abuses and political persecution, mass resignations made on political grounds and the limitation of the opposition’s rights, the European Left considers the government's actions as absolutely anti-democratic and damaging to the process of European integration for Moldova and calls on the ruling coalition in Moldova to stop such negative practices immediately, to open dialogue with the opposition, to respect the Moldovan Constitution and to fix a date for early elections.

The People’s Party is organising this wednesday a public hearing on the “Republic of Moldova: one year since the pro-European shift“, but the GUE/NGL already invited a member of the Moldavan Communist Party to be present and it is organising a protest in front of the Moldavian Embassy in Brussels.

The fate of the early parliamentary election in November is harder to predict but the Communists, who are currently in the opposition, remain the strongest single Moldovan party.

Background:

The Commission for study and appreciation totalitarian communist regime in Moldova was established by a Decree of the acting President of the Republic of Moldova Mr. Mihai Ghimpu,. The Preamble of the Decree describes the reasons and the rationale of establishing the Commission making reference to two Resolutions of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe No 1096 (1996) http://assembly.coe.int//main.asp?link=http://assembly.coe.int/Documents/AdoptedText/ta96/FRES1096.htm and No. 1481 (2006) http://assembly.coe.int/main.asp?Link=/documents/adoptedtext/ta06/fres1481.htm as well as on the basis of the art. 94 para. (1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova