Moldovans Protest Removal of Secret Services From Presidential Control

Thousands of Moldovans rallied on Thursday in Chisinau in front of parliament to protest against the move by the Socialist Party and the outgoing President, Igor Dodon, to prevent the incoming president from running the Security and Information Service, SIS.

"Down with the corrupt rulers! They [the Socialists] are trying to divide us with bills. The country is ours, and we will go to the end," Oazu Nantoi, from the Action and Solidarity Party, PAS, told the crowd on Thursday. They chanted: "Down with the Mafia!" and "Down with Dodon!"

PAS deputies in parliament say the SIS must remain subordinate to the President, not to parliament - which the Socialists dominate - to combat "another theft of billions", a referral to the so-called "grand theft" of one billion US dollars from the banking system in 2012 to 2014. Together with PAS, another party, Our Party, called for snap parliamentary elections.

On Wednesday, the Socialists introduced a draft bill to be voted on Thursday in a fast-forward procedure regarding the SIS. The Socialists skipped any public consultation about passing control of the SIS from the Presidency to parliament.

The country's newly elected pro-Western President, Maia Sandu, who will replace the pro-Russian Dodon, called on her supporters to stop the initiative. "The bill is anti-democratic abuse nurtured by the same person [Dodon] who lost the election … Dodon is planning to control corruption schemes and state institutions," Sandu said.

A Socialist MP, Vasile Bolea, responded by accusing Sandu, as future President and commander of the armed forces, of planning to use those tools to destabilize the country.

In a political TV show aired by TV 8 on Wednesday he noted that Sandu also holds Romanian...