A new attempt to vote on the municipal budget for the current year has failed. At today’s meeting of the Chisinau Municipal Council, the project was supported by only 23 councilors. The faction of the Socialist Party abstained from voting, while the councilors from the Action and Solidarity Party faction left the meeting before the budget vote, according to IPN.
Before leaving the council meeting room, the president of the PAS faction in the CMC, Zinaida Popa, mentioned that they are ready to support the municipal budget, as long as certain conditions are met. “We are giving Mayor Ion Ceban another chance to address our requests until Tuesday at 10:00”, said Zinaida Popa. Later, the PAS councilors left the meeting.
In their absence, the 2025 budget project was voted by 20 counselors from the Alternative National Movement Party, 2 counselors from the Communist Party, and the unaffiliated counselor Chiril Motpan. Therefore, the project did not meet the required number of at least 26 votes to be approved.
Previously, PAS councillors requested that the budget allocate 80 million lei for social compensation, 66 million lei for personal assistants’ salaries and 50 million lei for extended school hours. They are also requesting the allocation of 60 million lei for new schools and kindergartens, as well as 40 million lei for the purchase of public transport units.
In a response, Mayor Ion Ceban stated that all requests from the PAS have been included in the budget. “The budget is proposed for the third time in the meeting. They never wanted and did not intend to vote for the budget,” commented the mayor on social media.
The General Finance Directorate proposed a budget of 8.797 billion lei for 2025, including transfers from the state budget amounting to 4.527 billion lei. Total expenditures amount to 9.427 billion lei, with a budget surplus of 630.1 million lei.
And last year, the Chisinau local public administration operated for half a year with a provisional budget, which was approved by the Chisinau Municipal Council only at the end of July.
