Complaint to the CNCD against Marcel Ciolacu: “I will not accept to turn the inhabitants of Moldova into subjects of banks”

Filip Hăvârneanu, USR deputy from Iași, announced that he notified the National Council for Combating Discrimination (CNCD) regarding Marcel Ciolacu’s statement that “Buzăul is not in Moldova and please do not offend me”.

In a post on Facebook, the politician emphasizes that “such a slip, be it verbal” cannot be overlooked and accepted and Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu must be fined by the CNCD.

“I will not accept that the Prime Minister of Romania turns the inhabitants of Moldova into subjects of banks. For my part, as a resident of Iași, I felt discriminated against, and there is no doubt that the other Romanians in the Moldova region also categorized the prime minister’s attitude as an insult. Marcel Ciolacu’s act must be considered a contravention and fined”, wrote Filip Hăvârneanu.

The deputy catalogs Marcel Ciolacu’s statements as a form of discrimination that “must be penalized so that no other politician practices such rudeness”.

“Marcel Ciolacu was not asked if Buzău County is in Moldova, not even in an ironic sense, but his speech ended by mentioning that Buzău County is not in Moldova, showing that he would feel offended by such association. We have a prime minister who therefore feels indignation at the mere suspicion that someone could have associated him as being originally from the region of Moldova”, Filip Hăvârneanu also states.

“The truth is that Marcel Ciolacu and the PSD barons who are well-entrenched in public positions have for a long time had a defiant attitude towards the north-eastern region of Romania, implying that it is a poorly developed geo-political area, from which – they would like to be a part, not even hypothetically, but they forget that the cannons they constantly gave left Moldova without infrastructure, investments and economic stability”, concludes the USR deputy.

Marcel Ciolacu apologized

After provoking a wave of criticism, including calls for his resignation, with a statement made on Thursday in Timișoara in which he invoked the fact that Buzău county is not Moldova and asked people “to stop offending” with this statement, Marcel Ciolacu says that he was it’s a joke.

“That’s it, the Banatian from Grindeanu came to build the Autostrada in Moldova. Buzăul is not in Moldova and please don’t offend me. But a buzoian also came who, together with Mr. Grindeanu and the rest of his colleagues in the government, started to bring the people of Timisoara what is right to bring,” said Marcel Ciolacu, answering a question posed by a journalist.

The next day and after the Movement for the Development of Moldova asked him to resign, the prime minister came out with a message posted on his Facebook page saying that he did not want to offend the Moldovans, that his mother is from Tecuci and that he loves all Romanians as.

“First of all I am Romanian. I love my country and I believe in God. I am a Moldovan just as I am a Transylvanian, Banatian, Oltean or Bukovinian. My mother was from Tecuci. So far be it from me to offend anyone. I see that a joke I made in Timișoara was interpreted and some are trying to speculate politically. It was nothing pejorative. If anyone felt offended, I apologize, that’s not what I wanted,” wrote Ciolacu.

The prime minister claims that his respect for Moldova can be seen in “the big infrastructure projects we are doing here in recent years, precisely to recover the gaps compared to the other regions of the country. The real offense is when you put forward candidates like a tin thief and a criminal mayor from an organized crime group and expect people to vote for them.”

Ciolacu concludes by saying that he always felt a lot of warmth when he was in Moldova and that he will return every time with the same respect and appreciation.