Moldovan legislators have no intention of repealing or revising the law on the status of the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia, where the election of a new governor recently took place, Moldovan parliamentary speaker Igor Grosu said.

"We don't have such intentions or initiatives, this is just speculation," Grosu told the TV8 television channel when commenting on corresponding information on Tuesday.

He also refuted claims that the authorities could revise legislation in order to exclude the governor of Gagauzia from the government. "We didn't discuss this either, there was no such discussion," Grosu said.

He struggled to answer whether the presidential decree appointing new Gagauzia Governor Evghenia Gutul a member of the government would be signed. "That's hard for me to say. I don't know, if I were the prime minister, I would say what should be done. But in this case, I don't know. They [the authorities of Gagauzia] will probably be petitioning the president, and then it will be decided what to do in this situation," Grosu said.

At the same time, he said that the Moldovan authorities consider the elected Moldovan Governor Gutul of the Sor party "a representative of an organized criminal group, a gang." This was the reason why the Moldovan authorities did not attend Gutul's swearing-in ceremony, he said.

Relations between the central authorities and Gagauzia became strained after Chisinau tried to prevent recognition of the elections for the head of Gagauzia, the second round of which took place on May 13. Gutul, a previously unknown candidate representing the Sor party, won the elections by garnering 52.39% of the vote, according to the Central Elections Commission. Moldovan law enforcement authorities said that mass bribery of voters by the party founded by fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor, who was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment and is hiding in Israel, took place in Gagauzia.

The Chamber of Appeals of Comrat, the capital of Gagauzia, recognized Gutul's victory in the elections for Gagauzia's governor on May 22.

Gutul's swearing-in ceremony as governor took place on July 19. The president, the prime minister, and the parliamentary speaker of Moldova did not attend the ceremony.