“The people of Moldova don’t need a government that says pleasant things, but a government that solves their problems”, Filip said after the vote, as around 2,000 protesters stood outside parliament still demanding snap elections.
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These protesters set fire to the fence outside the parliamentary building, and hundreds of them broke through police lines and fought with riot police. They yelled “Cancel the vote!” and “Thieves!”
Police later pushed the protesters back but they forced their way into the parliament again. According to some reports the protesters also used tear gas against police. Some police officers were beaten by demonstrators, Radio Chisinau reported.
Filip, 50, the Minister of Informational Technologies and Communications in the caretaker cabinet, was nominated as prime minister-designate on Friday last week by President Timofti who accepted the proposal of the new parliamentary majority formed of the Democratic Party, the Liberal Party and MPs who quit the Liberal Democratic Party and the Communists’ Party.
As the session got underway, lawmakers from the Socialists’ Party booed, blew whistles and blocked off part of the Parliament. Following that, Filip was floated as a compromise candidate and garnered 57 votes in the 101-seat parliament – enough to become the new prime minister.
He later said he was committed to Moldova joining the European Union.
There were three protests on January 16 in the Moldovan capital city of Chisinau – two organised by pro-Russian parties and the third by civic group Dignity and Truth, which demands an end to what it calls endemic corruption.
“It is a mockery to form a government responsible for our lives and destiny in such a short time, while seeing so many gathered outside the windows and walls of parliament”. He was previously chosen by the country’s president as a compromise candidate after two earlier attempts to appoint a prime minister failed.
The new government was voted in after the previous administration was ousted in October amid a scandal after an estimated $1 billion went missing from the country’s banking system.
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It comes just days after thousands protested in Moldova, calling for parliament to be dissolved and early elections.
