On June 23, 2022, at the EU summit, it was decided to grant Moldova the status of an EU candidate. However, the indicated year brought into the life of Moldova an unprecedented social crisis caused by energy problems and the armed conflict in Ukraine.
A superficial look at the situation in Moldova is enough to realize that there is a deep social crisis in the country, the disappointment of society and the growing political confrontation. The public authorities, managing the apparatus of coercion, are tempted to use the criminal justice in order to put pressure on political opponents.
The Parliament of Moldova, in connection with the situation in Ukraine, declared a state of emergency in the country for a period of 60 days starting from February 24. 88 deputies from all parliamentary factions unanimously voted for this decision. The government of Moldova applied for the introduction of a state of emergency. The state of emergency is still in effect today.
Solidaritätsnetz International records that the state of emergency is used by the political authorities in Chisinau to suppress the opposition and restrict the rights of citizens.
Thus, the rights to protest and freedom of peaceful assembly are significantly limited for the citizens of Moldova.
In Moldova, the police and secret services are preventing anti-government protests, which are caused by the declining living standards in the country. Our Organization has recorded cases of unjustified detentions, checks of documents, obstruction of free movement and other cases of suppression of peaceful protesters.
Amnesty International Moldova, the Center for Policies and Reforms, the Promo-LEX Association and the Human Rights Embassy issued a joint declaration on 17 October condemning the demolition of the tent camp and the crackdown on the 16 October protest.
There is no war or natural disaster in Moldova. The use of authoritarian mechanisms to achieve even good goals is unacceptable in a European country. Using a fake state of emergency under the pretext of Russian aggression against Ukraine, the ruling power in Chisinau solves its own problems in an undemocratic way and voluntaristic methods. In Moldova, there is manual control and there is no parliamentarism, and public authorities have illegally restricted the rights of citizens to physical integrity, the rights to freedom, freedom of opinion, the right to information and freedom of assembly.
The sectors of our Organization in the Benelux, Germany and Austria have sent letters of protest to the Government of Moldova through the respective diplomatic missions of Moldova in the Netherlands, Germany and Austria.
Solidaritätsnetz International demanded the necessary intervention from the European Commission, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the OSCE and the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs in order to prevent the final transformation of the regime in Moldova into an autocracy.