Thread by @DionisCenusa

#Moldova: President-elect Sandu’s political party managed to mobilize around 100 people so far. The controversial politician Usatii has is backing the today’s protest too. However, his voter base is not in Chisinau. Parliament might try to vote some problematic laws. Read more👇

https://twitter.com/DionisCenusa/status/1334156883754709000

1) The real size of protests is hard to assess. From the pictures it’s visible that we can’t talk about dozens, but rather hundreds. So, more people might join soon. The protesters wear masks, but the social distance is not respected, as asked for the president-elect Sandu.

2) To read accurate and objective information about the situation in Moldova follow newsmaker.md and moldova.europalibera.org. During the day, I come up with more updates. Stay tuned!

2) President-elect Sandu joined the protests. The criticism she is expressing are almost identical to the slogans from the recent presidential campaign. She is surrounded (photo) by some members of the parliamentary faction of her Action and Solidarity Party.

3) These protests and the resistance against Dodon’s Socialists Party brings together Sandu’s party & her former political allies from the Platform DA. The latter opposes the fiscal and budgetary policies of Socialists that can lead to higher taxes, including for some businesses.

There are many protesters in between the presidency and the parliament buildings that are next to each other. They are chanting “We are the people!”

5) The opposition has stated that Dodon and the Socialists try to “federalize” Moldova through the proposed law on languages. Not clear what they mean. Opposition has also mentioned that many provisions of laws proposed by the Socialists are unconstitutional.

6) Sandu’s party and their political allies (Platforma DA) are blocking the budgetary-fiscal law. The Socialists (Dodon) underlined that the law is coming from loyal to them government. If Sandu’s party+Platforma DA dislike the proposal, then they can arrange a no-confidence vote

7) To eliminate any attempt of disinformation, the protests from today were related to the attempt of the Socialists to transfer SIS (intelligence service) from President’s competences to a larger control of the parliament.

8) So, nobody is revising the results of elections & cannot do that. The Const. Court is waiting to validate Sandu as president as far as the courts finish the rulings on the irregularities during the elections. In any case, the draft law can be still attacked in the Const. Court

9) The Socialists (Dodon) and the oligarch-controlled Shor group voted in two readings the law that transfer SIS from President’s coordination to the Parliament. They planned this well and acted efficiently. Now, the only solution is to attack the law in the Constitutional Court.

10) The Socialists decided to deviate the attention from what they did today and proposed a draft law on de-oligarchization. This law once adopted can hit the independence of state institutions, like National Bank etc. The snap elections seems to be inevitable to clean the parl.