Filat as PLDM Leader: Our Ultimate Goal Is to Reunify Moldova with Romania

PLDM leader Vlad Filat said, “We must act immediately to restore the state”. “I cannot but mention the importance of the PLDM merger with the National Unity Party. It is an indicator that such a thing can be done. Moldova needs a ‘force’ that is capable of building and developing, and the PLDM is a party that builds and develops, and its first step will be taken at this year's local elections,” nokta.md quoted Filat’s statement at tv8. “The goal is to get a decent result and lay the foundations for the formation of the PLDM. All our actions will be based on our ultimate goal is reunification of Moldova with Romania. This is the only path we should follow,” he said. As previously reported, Vlad Filat will lead the Liberal Democratic Party, which he founded in 2007, for the next four years. The announcement was made at the 10th extraordinary congress of the PLDM. Vlad Filat found himself behind bars on 15 October 2015, after being sentenced to nine years in prison. As there were criminal cases against Filat, pending before the National Anti-Corruption Centre and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, he was not taken to Lipcani prison, where convicted officials are held. Filat remained in Chisinau, in the penal colony no. 13. While serving his sentence, Vlad Filat appealed to the European Court of Human Rights, alleging inhuman prison conditions as well as violations of the right to freedom and security due to the lack of grounds for detention during his trial and a violation of the right to privacy. The release from custody of former Prime Minister Vlad Filat, who had served 4 years 1 month and 2 weeks of his earlier nine-year jail term, caused an exchange of accusations between ‘political camps’ in Chisinau. On January 31, 2023, the ECHR partially satisfied the politician's complaint about the lack of publicity in the criminal proceedings. The state was ordered to pay the former Prime Minister a €7,500 compensation for moral damage. Following the publication of the ECHR resolution, former Prime Minister Filat said at the press conference that he had been waiting seven years and four months for that moment. “That is how long it has been since this conspiracy took place, on October 15, 2015,” Filat said.