Sandu Invites Five Other Rivals to Team Up Against Dodon

This appeal was addressed by the PAS presidential candidate Maia Sandu to the participants in the pre-election race. She sent letters to five opponents in which she invited them to abandon reciprocal political debates and attacks concentrating on the criticism against Dodon, publika.md reports. Sandu’s message was received by Andrei Nastase, Octavian Ticu, Renato Usatii, Tudor Deliu and Dorin Chirtoaca. It reads that Igor Dodon wants all the participants in the presidential race to quarrel among themselves, but the citizens are tired of conflicts. Therefore, the PAS leader invites all of them to meet and discuss a common plan of action against the head of state. Chirtoaca accepted Sandu’s proposal without hesitation, “Our positions coincide, we also made such a statement. They sent a letter, we’ll see if colleagues from other parties will respond to the invitation. It is quite natural that we should all defend our votes.” The PAS leader’s idea was also supported by the National Unity Party nominee, “I am glad that the PAS has finally woken up. We will take part in the discussions to create a common front to protect the votes, against the falsifications that will take place in these elections, that’s all,” Octavian Ticu responded. But the candidate from the DA Platform, Andrei Nastase, evaded a clear answer, “My colleagues from the DA Platform and I have been talking about teaming up in order to win the elections against Dodon since 2016. We made similar public address three weeks ago, but other candidates left our appeal without response.” The PLDM candidate, Tudor Deliu, declined to comment, while Renato Usatii did not answer our calls at all. Earlier, Maia Sandu strongly opposed discussions with the Our Party formation leader. Now, however, she invited him too, “I’ve never trusted Renato Usatii. I didn’t trust him, I don’t trust him, and I will never trust him. We cannot create any alliances or cooperate at all,” Sandu said in the past. There is no candidate from the Sor party, Violetta Ivanov, on the list of those who received Sandu’s letter. Igor Dodon did not seem to be very excited about the PAS leader’s appeal. His press secretary, Ludmila Muntean, told Publika TV that he is not afraid of a possible alliance of all candidates against him. “It is interesting to see if Ms. Sandu can create such a coalition. Previously, she lacked capabilities to do this. But in any case, we wish good luck to all rivals. We will defeat them both individually and all together,” her message reads.