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Gheorghe Sima of the "Patria Moldova" party which supports the independence of Pridnestrovie

CHISINAU (Tiraspol Times) - One of Moldova's political parties, the „Patria-Moldova” party, announced its plans for opening branches in Spain, Italy, and Portugal during a press conference in Chisinau on Tuesday, reported Moldova's Deca Press news agency. Apart from Russia, where the party already has a strong and thriving branch, these three EU countries are the top destinations for Moldovan guest workers; both legal and illegal.

The new party offices abroad will primarily help Moldovan citizens who work in these countries with solving their problems, said Gheorghe Sima, the Chisinau based deputy-president of the political party and a former government minister.

"Patria Moldova" is opposed to the regime of Moldovan strongman Vladimir Voronin, which is sees as undemocratic, and is strongly in favor of independence for Transnistria (officially: Pridnestrovie).

By throwing the party's weight behind Pridnestrovive's independence, Moldovans who live abroad are increasingly distancing themselves from the policies of Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin.

Earlier this year, the leader of the Patria-Moldova party, Andrei Tarna, issued a public call for recognition of Pridnestrovie's independence.

" - I call on the President of Moldova, Vladimir Voronin, and on parliament and the government of Moldova, to immediately recognize the independence of a 'de facto' second Moldovan State, the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, and thus resolve the Transnistrian issue once and for all, and then seek good neighborly relations in all spheres of life: economic, political, social, and building capacity for a future Moldovan confederation," he said.

More than a million have left the country

The Patria-Moldova party's vice president, Gheorghe Sima, said on Tuesday that there are more than 700,000 Moldovans who currently work illegally in the countries of the former Soviet Union, and that most of them are in Russia where the main foreign branch of "Patria Moldova" is located. Moldova also has an estimated 350,000 citizens who work abroad legally, which brings the total number of expatriates to over one million.

According to World Bank figures, illegal gast-arbeiters from Moldova send nearly one billion dollars home to the country each year, but Gheorghe Sima says that they are completely ignored politically by the leaders of the regime.

Increasingly isolated and out of touch with the political opinions of the Moldovan people, President Voronin and the ruling Communist Party continue to insist that there can be no independence for the neighbor on the other side of the Dniester river, and that the "de facto" sovereign statehood of Pridnestrovie must be exterminated. In contrast to the Voronin regime's stand, the "Patria Moldova" party is willing to let the future of Pridnestrovie be decided by the voters of Pridnestrovie, and no one else.

Gheorghe Sima said at the press conference that the party led by Andrei Tarna has instead had consultations with Russia's lower house, the State Duma, in an effort to legalize the status of the 700,000 illegal Moldovans in Russia. He re-iterated his need for Moldova to accept Transnistrian independence as "the only realistic solution to this conflict."

Sima, an ethnic Moldovan, was Minister of Education in Moldova for two years between 2001 and 2003 before joining the opposition. (With information from Deca-Press)

See also:
» Expat Moldovans support Moldovan PMR MPs call for independence [1]
» Andrei Tarna: "As a Moldovan, I want Moldova to respect Transnistria's wish for independence" [2]
» "Patria Moldova" joins other ethnic Moldovans in support of PMR independence [3]

Opinion and commentary:
» Half of Moldova's workers have left the country [4]