Some 15,000 Communist Party supporters have demonstrated in Moldova to demand the resignation of a government they regard as too pro-Western.
Moldova, a country of 4.1 million people, is one of Europe’s poorest with an average monthly salary of €200 ($270). Some 600,000 Moldovans work abroad. The pro-European government has been in power since July 2009 when the Communists lost an election in the former Soviet nation.
Saturday’s mostly elderly protesters in Chisinau, the capital, called for the resignation of Prime Minister Vlad Filat and the governing Alliance for European Integration.
"This country is run from Brussels, the U.S., and Bucharest. … Is this what we want?" said Iurie Muntean, a senior official of the opposition pro-Russian Communist Party.
