Leader of Moldova’s Socialists Igor Dodon perpetuates homophobia and transphobia in 2015 local elections campaign
26 May 2015
The Chairman of the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova and member of Parliament, Igor Dodon, perpetuates homophobia and transphobia in the recent political commercial released within the 2015 local elections campaign. On 22 May, the political commercial, both in Romanian and Russian languages, titled “We will restore order in the country, in the capital, in all cities and villages” was uploaded on the YouTube channel of the Socialists’ candidate for Mayor of Chișinău, Zinaida Greceanîi, and began to be broadcast on several TV channels. The general local elections across Moldova are due to take place on 14 June.
In the commercial, Igor Dodon criticises current Moldovan Government for corruption and financial fraud: “Today’s Government means corruption. It means robbed citizens. Our children will have to pay for the stolen billions from the bank system”. He continues with accusing the pro-European coalition of “destroying our traditional and moral Christian values” while showing faces of Moldovan LGBT activists marching in the 3rd LGBT Pride March for Equality, which took place in Chișinău on 17 May, the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia.
Anastasia Danilova, Executive Director of GENDERDOC-M Information Centre said: “This is not the first time when Igor Dodon and the Party of Socialists, a strong advocate for maintaining tight relations with Russia and opponent of the European Union and equality for LGBT people, uses homophobia and transphobia as a platform to manifestation his party’s political agenda. Last year, in another political commercial Igor Dodon exploited the image of the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest winner Conchita Wurst as an example of how decadent and morally degrading Western European countries are as opposed to the spiritually puritan and highly moral Russia under Vladimir Putin’s rule”.
Moreover, Socialists’ latest commercial features a sample from the British band Coldplay’s song ‘Clocks’ throughout the entire duration of the video spot. It is still unknown if Coldplay has granted the right to use their music in the Socialists’ commercials in general and in the one with a strong xenophobic message in particular.
GENDERDOC-M urges the entire international community and leftist political parties and movements to condemn the use of homophobia and transphobia in the political agenda of the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova. We also call on the music band Coldplay to publicly condemn the use of their music in this disgraceful and discriminatory political video spot.
Here are the YouTube links to the commercial in Romanian and in Russian.