Liberal Democratic Party leader: Western countries aren't pushing Communists to vote for a President like they pressured us in 2005

Vlad Filat, head of the Liberal Democratic Party, the largest member of the ruling Alliance for European Integration, told Romanian news agency NewsIn that Western diplomats in Chisinau have not expressed an interest in asking the Party of Communists to vote for a democratic President.

Mr. Filat said that their attitude was different in 2005, when the Party of Communists (PC) needed a few non-Communist votes to re-elect Mr. Voronin. At the time, said the Liberal Democrat, Western countries asked opposition parties to provide those missing votes.

In fact, the Alliance representative stressed that after the April 5 election this year, some Western partners "suggested, sometimes in a very undiplomatic manner" that the non-Communist parties talk to the PC about the election of a Communist President.

Mr. Filat's statements come right after the PC recently announced it would not hold talks with the Alliance about the election of a President and that it would talk to each individual party that made it to Parliament instead. The only non-Communist parties are, however, members of the Alliance, and have said they will not have individual talks with the former ruling party.