The Liberal Party’s candidate for mayor of Chisinau Valeriu Munteanu said he deserves the vote of the inhabitants of Chisinau because he will struggle for democracy and for a better life for the residents of the city. He considers himself the only free candidate. He served as a mayor and has experience of managing local affairs. He prepared a lot for the post of mayor and, when he is elected, he will fully devote himself to the problems of Chisinau and will not become involved in the parliamentary elections of this autumn. Registered election runners presented their platforms in the public debate “I ask you to elect me mayor because...” staged by IPN News Agency on April 24.
The Liberal candidate said in the upcoming elections, the citizens should mobilize and should not be afraid of voting. He is convinced that he has residents behind who will know to choose between the candidates who come to represent them and those who come for the sake of politics. Ex-mayor Dorin Chirtoaca vacated his seat so as to enable the citizens of Chisinau to show by vote that their opinion matters and all the attempts to obstruct the activity of the City Hall are fruitless.
In the same connection, the Liberal said none of the programs of his electoral opponents says where financial resources will be taken from to fulfill all their electoral promises and to develop the city. In this regard, he proposed that all the income taxes collected in the capital city should remain in the municipal budget for the City Hall to develop Chisinau by the model of other territorial-administrative units and should not be managed by the central authorities, as now.
Referring to his electoral program, Valeriu Munteanu said he intends to restore the Chisinau International Airport to the government as this is now owned by Ilan Shor. “We must build a power plant based on cogeneration of Romanian gas that reaches Chisinau so as not to pay inflated bills. We should have local police in Chisinau, which would fluidize traffic and would deal with street trading. We should develop a metropolitan area and should not exclude the suburbs, as some of my opponents intend to do,” stated the candidate.
Asked by the candidate of the Political Party “Democracy at Home” Vasile Costiuc why Moldova became the poorest state in Europe managed by a pro-European government of which he formed part, Valeriu Munteanu replied that he has never accepted half-measures and was thus treated by the power as an element of the opposition.
Alexandr Roshko, of the Party “Our Home Moldova”, asked the Liberal candidate to say why he accepted to be a minister in the coalition formed by Plahotniuc. The Liberal responded he had to make painful compromises for Moldova, but these were made amid other much complicated decisions. He assured that he never formed a coalition with Vladimir Plahotniuc and every time centered on the set desiderata and didn’t disappoint the people.
The candidate of the Political Party “Platform Dignity and Truth” Andrei Nastase in this connection said that if he is elected mayor, he will do his best for the good things commenced by ex-mayor Dorin Chirtoaca to be continued. Andrei Nastase is convinced that his program, which is a well-organized one, can be supplemented with what’s best from Valeriu Munteanu’s program.
According to ADEPT executive director Igor Botan, the project’s standing expert Igor, the political discourse of Valeriu Munteanu sounds well for the ears of voters. The candidate is a jurist, ex-mayor and lawmaker. He asserted himself as a fighter for justice and this is important. One of his missions is to continue what Dorin Chirtoaca started to do for Chisinau, but could not complete the projects. A sun will not suffer for his father’s iniquity and this means that even if unpleasant things happened with the participation of the Liberal Party, Munteanu responds personally for his own deeds. Valeriu Munteanu pledges to deliver his promises during a year with the intention of winning a full term in office in the ordinary mayoral elections next year.
The public debate “I ask you to elect me mayor because...” was the 89th installment of the series of debates “Developing political culture through political debates” that are financially supported by the German Foundation “Hanns Seidel”.
