Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Retirees gather in downtown Chisinau again to protest City Council decision to hike fees, block traffic downtown

A few hundred retirees gathered in front of Chisinau City Hall today to protest against the City Council's decision on September 15 to increase fees for water consumption and public transportation, and to take away the right of pensioneers to use public transportation for free.

The demonstrators blocked traffic in downtown Chisinau and asked for their public transportation privileges to be returned. Chisinau mayor Dorin Chirtoaca, who was assaulted by protesters yesterday (see an Imedia report about how events unfolded yesterday here), said that retiress would get an additional subsidy of 70 lei (about seven U.S. dollars) for transportation, which did not go over well with the crowd.

On the other hand, protesters today were also greeted by Mr. Chirtoaca's supporters, some of whom were retirees from outside of Chisinau who complained that Chisinau elderly residents were asking for too many privileges. Media outlets have also shown elderly men and women fight about whether they should speak Russian or Romanian during the protests, and many protesters were accused of supporting the Party of Communists, which recently lost legislative elections.

h/t www.protv.md
www.stireazilei.md
www.jurnal.md

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