Several thousand people demonstrated on Sunday in the Moldovan capital for the second consecutive weekend to demand the resignation of the country’s pro-Western government amid mounting anger over soaring natural gas prices and inflation.
The small Eastern European nation, squeezed between Ukraine and Romania, has seen political tensions rise in recent months as gas prices soar after Russia invaded Ukraine. Russia.
A Reuters reporter estimated the crowd to be around 5,000 outside President Maia Sandu’s official residence, a little less than last Sunday’s rally.
The demonstrators sang “Down with Maia Sandu” and “Down with the government”.
The demonstrations are the largest since Sandu won a landslide election victory in 2020 on an anti-corruption platform, but they do not pose an immediate threat to the president and his administration.
Sandu has repeatedly condemned Moscow’s actions in Ukraine and pushed for membership of the European Union, which provided considerable aid to the former Soviet state.
His detractors accuse him of negotiating a better gas deal with Russia, Moldova’s main supplier.
On Friday, Moldova’s gas regulator raised prices by 27% for households.
The protests were organized by the opposition party of Ilan Shor, an exiled businessman convicted of fraud in a billion-dollar banking scandal. The main suspect in this fraud, business tycoon Vlad Plahotniuc, is also outside Moldova, where his whereabouts are unknown.
Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita said she is focusing on helping low-income people.
“The problems of the country and its people will not be solved on the streets,” he wrote on the news site point.md. “We try to solve the problems of the people most in need”. Protesters have promised to hold weekly demonstrations until Sandu and his government leave office.
A camp of around 100 tents remains around the Moldovan parliament, and on Sunday the protesters set up another dozen tents outside the president’s residence.