PAS

The National Anticorruption Centre, together with prosecutors and investigative officers, carried out 24 raids on Thursday, after which two employees of the General Directorate of Medical and Social Assistance of the Chisinau Municipal Council, including the head of the Health Directorate, Boris Gîlcă, were detained for 72 hours.

After Russia announced on Tuesday evening that it had banned three pro-European Moldovan MPs and the Interior Minister, the targeted politicians said they had no plans to go there anyway.

The authorities in Moscow banned Interior Minister Ana Revenco and three deputies of the Action and Solidarity Party, PAS, Oazu Nantoi, Olesea Stamate and Lilian Carp.

Experts from the Venice Commission, an advisory body of the Council of Europe composed of independent experts on constitutional law, warned that new legislation strengthening the powers of Moldova's Information and Security Service's could have a negative effect on democracy in the country.

Moldova will hand over the building of the former Theological Seminary in Chisinau to the Metropolis of Bessarabia, which is linked to the Romanian Orthodox Church, if a draft law registered by several deputies of the ruling Action and Solidarity Party, PAS, is adopted.

The government of Moldova, led by Prime Minister Natalia Gravrilita, on Friday carried out its first reshuffle, almost a year after taking office, appointing former deputy head of the pro-Western Action and Solidarity Party, PAS, Vladimir Bolea, as Agriculture Minister.

Former Moldovan president Igor Dodon on Wednesday said his detention on Tuesday on treason charges was "a political case", claiming that the governing pro-European Action and Solidarity Party, PAS, was pusuing a vendetta.

Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita announced on Monday evening that pensions for the elderly and allowances for vulnerable citizens would rise after October 1 for about 427,000 people.

After consultations with all the parliamentary parties, President Maia Sandu on Friday appointed her close ally Natalia Gavrilita as Prime Minister-designate of Moldova.

Sandu said she had every confidence that the newly appointed PM will bring a team that has integrity and professionalism, and puts citizens first.

Pro-European parties gained a convincing victory in the elections in Moldova on Sunday after 99.60 per cent of the ballots cast were counted.

According to these results, the pro-European Action and Solidarity Party, PAS, led until recently by President Maia Sandu, came first by a landslide, taking 52.60 per cent of the votes and 63 seats of the 101 seats, a comfortable majority.

Moldova's Supreme Court of Justice on Tuesday told the Central Electoral Commission, CEC, to open 191 polling stations for diaspora voters, as the Foreign Affairs Ministry had asked, after a three-week internal political row.

The judges ruled that the CEC had abused its powers and opposed the Foreign Ministry proposal to open more voting stations for Moldovans abroad.