MOSCOW, December 4. /TASS/: Moldova’s outgoing President Igor Dodon believes that his successor, president-elect Maia Sandu, is trying to destabilize situation in the country by urging citizens to protest on Sunday.
"They won the presidential polls. We recognized the result. We are not making any attempts to hamper them from entering the president’s office. On December 10, literally next week, the Constitutional Court will approve the election results, and the new president will be sworn in on December 24. What’s the problem?" the outgoing president said.
"It seems to me that their current agenda is not related to domestic affairs. They pursue external agenda, attempting to destabilize the situation in Moldova," Dodon continued.
In his words, calls for mass gatherings are "very dangerous" both in terms of the country’s stability and amid the pandemic.
On December 6, Sandu announced a mass protest on Chisinau’s central square with a demand to dissolve the parliament.
Citizenship issue
The Moldovan president also said the country’s principal intelligence agency, the Information and Security Service, must not be subordinated to the president, because his successor Maia Sandu has dual Moldovan-Romanian citizenship.
"The Information and Security Service always was under the parliament’s control," Dodon said. "Moreover, we think that in a situation when the president of the country has the citizenship of another country as well - and our next president holds the Romanian citizenship as well - it would be wrong to leave the Information and Security Service in the hands of a foreign country’s national."
The Moldovan leader said he planned to sign a bill on the issue soon.
"By the way, the law on the Information and Security Service clearly states that none of its employees has the right to have dual citizenship," he said. "The people who head this organization will continue working there. We are not going to change anything."
Runoff presidential elections were held in Moldova on November 15. Sandu won the polls. Results of the voting are yet to be confirmed by the Constitutional Court on November 10. Dodon’s office term expires on December 23 and Sandu’s inauguration is scheduled for the following day.
The ruling majority of the Party of Socialists and the Democratic Party in the Moldovan parliament broke down ahead of the presidential elections and Dodon called for early parliamentary polls in May or June next year but insisted legal procedures be observed when dissolving the parliament. Sandu, in turn, insists the parliament be dissolved immediately and has called on her supporters to organize protests in support of this demand on Sunday.
