‘No’ to closer ties with the European Union<br /><br />That was the message from at least 15,000 Moldovans answering the call of the country’s opposition Communists to protest in the capital Chisinau.<br /><br />Some elderly participants held religious icons aloft, to decry an association deal with the EU due to be concluded at a summit in Lithuania next week.<br /><br />Accusing the pro-European government of telling lies to the people, Communist Party leader Vladimir Voronin said: “They do not ask anyone, they ignore parliament and public opinion and they are intending to sign a secret document at Vilnius.”<br /><br />He added that Moldova could receive cheaper energy from Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan <br />within a rival customs union led by Moscow.<br /><br />A much larger rally in favour of EU-integration was held in Moldova earlier this month.<br /><br />According to opinion polls, just over half the population of the ex-Soviet republic supports an increasingly close relationship with Brussels.
