Farmer Vasile Mereuță has accused Moldova’s ruling PAS party of trying to discourage farmers from growing potatoes.
While public attention was focused on allegations involving President Maia Sandu’s relatives and the replacement of Prime Minister Alexandru Munteanu with Tofan, Parliament quietly passed a measure that, according to Mereuță, could leave anyone who grows potatoes facing fines because of Colorado potato beetles.
According to the farmer and blogger, the newly adopted legislation provides for fines ranging from 1 to 5,000 lei if Colorado potato beetles are found in potato fields or gardens.
“What did the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova decide last week? In short, it passed a law. If you have potatoes growing in your garden and Colorado potato beetles appear, as people call them, you can be fined from 1 to 5,000 lei,” Mereuță said in a video message that has spread widely across social media.
The farmer argues that the initiative has little to do with protecting crops and is instead intended to discourage rural residents from growing potatoes, forcing them to buy vegetables from supermarket chains.
“They say they want to save the villages, but in reality they are destroying them. Now they also want to leave people without potatoes. They want to intimidate farmers so that people stop planting potatoes and start buying them in stores,” Mereuță claimed.
He also criticized several MPs by name, accusing them of voting against the interests of their own families.
“I want to ask the deputies I know personally, Mrs. Larisa Voloh from Palanca—how could you vote against your own parents? Mrs. Catrari, how can you vote against your parents? Colorado beetles have existed since I was a child; they didn’t appear yesterday.”
He also addressed MP Alec Balaboi directly:
“Alec Balaboi, how can you vote against your own mother? Against your parents, against people who work the land?”
Mereuță questioned why the authorities would target thousands of small-scale farmers who grow potatoes primarily to feed their families.
“Is this what you call democracy? Is this what European standards look like? Gracious Mrs. von der Leyen is sending us another message through our deputies: don’t eat potatoes anymore,” he said sarcastically.
The farmer called on citizens to speak out and oppose policies that, in his view, place additional pressure on Moldova’s struggling rural communities instead of supporting agricultural development.
He concluded by warning that, if the authorities continue down this path, other agricultural pests could also become grounds for fines. Cabbage butterflies, codling moths, birds that feed on cherries, mosquitoes, horseflies, and other insects, he suggested sarcastically, might eventually become targets of future legislation.
According to Mereuță, such measures reflect a system in which ordinary people are increasingly expected to pay for problems caused by nature itself, rather than receiving meaningful support for agriculture.
