Chișinău, Moldova, May 22, 2018
Photo: Facebook Moldovan President Igor Dodon has condemned the actions of the authorities and police who prevented protests against this year’s LGBT march on May 19, ensuring that the event would continue through the streets of Chișinău.
The president has repeatedly voiced his opposition to such events and rejected invitations to participate, as have local Orthodox hierarchs, saying they are incongruous with Moldovan values.
“I strongly condemn the actions of the authorities and the police that ensured the march. These are values that are alien to us, which I do not accept. I stand for traditional family values and observance of Orthodox traditions,” Dodon said at a press conference on Tuesday, Interfax-Religion reports.
In his view, “the behavior of the police, who took measures against those who wanted to prevent the march, is unacceptable.”
The march has been successfully disrupted the past two years.
The participants walked the entire route of the march for the first time this year. Attempts by Orthodox faithful to stop the march were thwarted by the police who provided unprecedented security measures. Thousands of police officers accompanied the marchers, and police in riot gear surrounded the marchers from all sides. Traffic was also blocked in the central streets of the capital.
“If the government wanted to hold this march, they should have held in the government building. There’s no reason to block the whole city for a few dozen people,” the head of state underlined.
Dodon also noted that while he does not oppose the development of relations with the West, “they should not so persistently impose alien values upon us.”
“In our country, 98% of the population is Orthodox, hence society’s painful reaction to these marches and the imposition of these ideas. Our society does not accept them. This must be kept in mind,” the president emphasized.
A week before the march, His Eminence Metropolitan Vladimir of Chișinău and All Moldova appealed to Chișinău authorities, saying, “This minority parade launches an offensive challenge at the societal values of the majority of our society, which is made up of 98% Orthodox Christians—the preservers of the teachings of the holy Gospel, according to which marriage is only between a man and a woman—not between people of the same sex.”
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