Can you imagine today’s communists wrapping themselves in the flag of a 16th century prince who was a relative of Dracula? It is not the plot of a bizarre play, but a very serious political row currently happening in Moldova. Former prime minister Vladimir Voronin’s Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM) has launched a campaign to vindicate the ros-albastru (a bicolor red-blue banner which they see as belonging to the prince Stephen III) as a national symbol of the country. To make matters more complicated, Moldova’s National Commission on Heraldry considers the banner as outrageous and false. Continue reading →