Diplomats, NGOs, Condemn Attacks on EU Ambassador to Moldova

The ambassadors of 22 EU member states issued a joint statement on Thursday afternoon rejecting the public attacks on the EU Ambassador to Moldova, Peter Michalko, by the pro-Russian Socialist Party, PSRM, and Shor Party, led by a fugitive oligarch, Ilan Shor.

"We, the Ambassadors of the EU and the EU Member States wish to refute the recent attacks on Ambassador Peter Michalko and other Ambassadors formulated by the Party of the Socialists and the fugitive MP Ilan Shor," said the diplomats in a joint press release.

A joint domestic statement with the same purpose was launched on Friday by the National Platform of Civil Society in the Eastern Partnership, which gathers 96 Moldovan NGOs.

"The Shor Party and the PSRM recently launched attacks on the EU ambassador to Moldova, Peter Michalko, to divert attention from the undemocratic and unconstitutional manoeuvres they are doing to retain power after the loss of the presidential election by Igor Dodon," the NGOs stated.

The Socialists, now led by Dodon, and Shor Party launched virulent attacks against Michalko after he said on February 18 that it was "worrying when people who took part in the bank fraud are involved in negotiations on the formation of the government".

He was referencing the so-called "grand theft" of a billion US dollars from the Moldovan banks in 2014, which the fugitive Shor is believed to have masterminded.

Shor's party and Dodon's Socialists now form the parliamentary majority, however, besides owning powerful media holdings.

"The target of the attacks must be corruption, not those who want to help Moldova fight it," a political analyst, Denis Cenusa, said on Friday.

"By these disqualifying attacks on ambassador Michalko, the PSRM leader ...