The Moldovan parliament did not approve a proposal by the country's Communist Party to dismiss the parliament speaker over his controversial decree on creating Soviet Occupation Day.
Earlier this month, Moldova's acting president Mikhai Ghimpu, who is also the parliament speaker, promulgated a decree establishing June 28 as Soviet Occupation Day in the country and ordered a Monument to the Victims of the Soviet Occupation to be erected in front of the government building.
Ghimpu refused on Monday to revoke his decree and it is now up to the Constitutional Court to make the final decision of its constitutionality.
Russia earlier criticized the decree saying it was part of a preplanned political campaign spearheaded against Russian-Moldovan partnership.
A lawmaker from the communist faction, Vladimir Muntyan, called on parliamentarians on Wednesday to include on the agenda the issue of dismissing Ghimpu as the parliament speaker.
The deputies did not include the issue on the agenda and the issue was not discussed. The communist faction left the parliament session in a sign of a protest against the decision.
The communists had earlier asked the Democratic Party to support the proposal, but the party refused.
"We do not agree with extreme measures, we have many problems which need to be solved. We will not support the initiative of the communists," the leader of the Democratic Party, Marian Lupu, said.
Former Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin, who heads the opposition Communist Party, slammed this refusal saying that the Democratic Party supports Ghimpu while "advocating its own interests."
"Each day Ghimpu remains in power leads Moldova to full despair," Voronin said. He said his party will make efforts to "dismiss the Alliance from power and return Moldova to democracy and law."
Ghimpu was made acting Moldovan leader in September 2009 when the country's liberal-democratic coalition was forced to find a compromise after failing to appoint another candidate. Ghimpu is known for his sweeping pro-Romanian policies. Recent polls show that Ghimpu's popularity rating is less than 2%.
On June 28, 1940, at a USSR request, royal Romania withdrew its troops from Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, which it had been occupying since 1918, and the region joined the Soviet Union. The Moldavian SSR, including six Bessarabia districts as well as six areas from the left bank of the Dnester, was established in August 1940.
CHISINAU, June 30 (RIA Novosti)
