Of the series of IPN interviews with all the candidates for mayor general of Chisinau municipality: Andrei Nastase, candidate of the Political Party “Platform Dignity and Truth”.
– What made you run for the mayoralty of Chisinau municipality?
– I decided to run in these elections because our city needs a powerful administration that will eliminate chaos, will fully root out the corruption schemes and will lay the foundations for improving the quality of life in the municipality. Chisinau needs a mayor general with authority, with a strong team, a program and view and with capacity to do reforms that will profoundly change things in the municipality. The capital city needs an honest administration that will not destroy the municipal property and will now allow erecting illegal constructions and the sale of municipal property, including land, to illegal groups of interests at derisory prices.
Chisinau needs a mayor who can attract resources, including from outside the country, can ensure the collection of money into the budget and can develop the municipality at economic level. I also run to prevent the Plahotniuc-Dodon grouping from taking control of Chisinau. The citizens of Chisinau need a mayor who would represent their interests, not an illegal mayor with “special missions” from Plahotniuc.
– Why do you think you should be voted in the May 20 elections?
– Personally, I believe in democracy and in the people’s will. I also strongly believe in the residents’ attachment to our capital city, Chisinau. Therefore, I’m convinced that the inhabitants of the city and of the suburban settlements of the municipality will not allow the capital to be seized by the Plahotniuc-Dodon duo. I remain convinced that regardless of polls, the residents of the municipality will take an active part in the elections and will make a correct choice. I’m obliged to bring Chisinau back to its citizens. I always served the public interests, either as a lawyer or a civic activist and also as the leader of the protest movement.
I struggled for human rights and defended democracy. I defended the rule of law, the state institutions from oligarchs, the public resources, the economic interests of the Republic of Moldova. I forcefully opposed the abuses committed by the government against the own people. Unlike others, I never tried to divide society. Now I will defend the interests of all the residents of the municipality, regardless of their political beliefs.
– Which are the most pressing three problems in Chisinau and how quickly can they be solved? What solutions do you suggest?
– The first group of problems is related to corruption, chaos and the lack of a strategy for developing the capital city. During the first year, I will ensure conditions for approving the General Urban Development Plan. The lack of such an updated document is one of the major causes for the chaos that favors fraudulent schemes of appropriation of public funds and property, appearance of illegal constructions, destruction of the historical heritage, etc. For these reasons, we will accelerate the process that is intentionally delayed by decision makers of the City Hall in concert with groups of interests from the real estate sector. Also during the first year, we will do the “City Hall reform”, which is an efficient mechanism for organizing the subdivisions and municipal public services, and will digitize the services. The goal of de-bureaucratization is to rationalize the number of functionaries and to increase their salaries. We will not resort to administrative cleansing based on political criteria. We will assess the activity of institutions, services and municipal enterprises. We will order an audit of municipal enterprises.
As regards corruption, the mayor, owing to his powers and knowledge of legislation and to techniques to fight illegal schemes, can eliminate the corrupt people from the system by legal means. Under the legislation, the mayor general has important duties as regards the hiring and firing of the personnel of the City Hall, deputy heads of districts and secretaries of the district head’s offices, managers of subdivisions of the municipal public administration (general divisions, divisions, services, etc.), managers of public services, of municipal public institutions and enterprises. I want to be understood correctly: the corrupt persons, regardless of posts and ranks, political or other beliefs, will be removed from the administration.
The second group of problems refers to public transport and fluidization of traffic. To solve these problems, we will do several things. First of all, we will conduct a comprehensive audit at the municipal enterprises: Chisinau Electric Transport Company and Urban Bus Company. Secondly, we will ensure the renewal of trolleybuses and will provide more battery-powered trolleybuses so as to ensure the smooth and fast running of public transport. Thirdly, we will build new transport lines, especially for trolleybuses. We need to build transport lines in the suburbs and inter- and intra-district lines.
We will bring things in the public transport sector (minibuses, taxies) in order by laying down clear rules for ensuring the appropriate transportation of passengers and for increasing fiscal integrity. The public and private transport will run based on a posted schedule that will be respected, at an optimal frequency rate. We will also use web applications to inform the citizens about the circulation of transport. We will lay emphasis on the comfort in units of transport. We will renovate the public transport stations so that they are outfitted with benches, garbage bins and posters. We will create conditions for gradually introducing alternative transport in Chisinau (e.g: creation of cycling tracks and parking places).
As regards the fluidization of traffic, there are universal solutions that were applied in all the cities that faced such a problem. We will pursue a policy to increase the attractiveness of the public transport by creating conditions for the inhabitants to more often use the public transport. We will learn from the experience of foreign cities that managed to persuade the citizens not to use private cars and to increase the number of those who prefer public transport. Among other concrete measures we planned are: to lay out corridors for public transport, to create one-way lanes, to use information technology in regulating the transportation and flow of passengers, to build circular rings, the Chisinau belt and goods roads, to develop access road infrastructure (bridges, passages). The building of parking spaces downtown and in residential areas is another concern.
The third group of problems derives from the lack of a policy to support the suburbs. The legal responsibility of the mayor general to cooperate with the mayors of the towns and villages that form part of the municipality in solving common problems and in ensuring the functioning of municipal public services is an aspect that has been neglected for many years. The suburban communities will remain an integral part of the municipality. We will pursue an active policy to modernize the transport, water, sewerage, electric power systems and other utilities needed by the people to have decent, civilized and high-quality living.
– How will the pay parking spaces project end, in your opinion?
– As to the development of parking lots, we aim to create a system of public parking spaces that will become accessible and friendly. We will identity, delimit and appropriately mark the parking spaces by protecting the green areas. We will mark the streets and the perimeters intended for public parking places and will build more parking lots. We will introduce a gradual parking taxation system in some areas of the city, especially downtown, and the automated taxation system, with online or SMS payment, so as to augment the amounts collected into the municipal budget. We will ensure the construction of new public underground and multistory parking areas that will be outfitted with stations for charging electrical cars.
To ease traffic, based on the example of other states, we will initiate the building of parking lots at the entrances to the city, where those who travel to and from Chisinau could leave their cars during the day and could travel by public transport. We will design an application that will show the free parking places so as to facilitate the drivers’ access. We will found a municipal enterprise that will manage the public parking places.
– What solutions do you have for the waste disposal problem in the city?
– One of our priorities is to attract technology and qualified experience and private capital so as to double the solid waste sorting rate from 40% to 80%. This will enable to produce electric power and heat. In this connection, we will promote an active policy to inform the population about the mechanisms and benefits of sorting household waste. The cleanup problem is related to this. Therefore, we will stage broad cleanup events to clean the parks, public gardens, green areas, the Byk River. We must also improve the waste collection and storage mechanism.
We will establish a partnership with business entities, all the municipal enterprises, education and medial institutions and all the residents so as to increase the cleaning standards in the city and to maintain these. In each meeting, residents complain about the ecological degradation of the city, tree felling, pollution and lack of efficient communication between the local authorities and dwellers.
– What is the stake of the upcoming elections?
– The stake of these elections is huge. Besides the responsibility for ensuring competent and honest management in the municipality, we are also obliged to prevent the Plahotniuc-Dodon grouping from taking over the capital city.
– Is the City Hall a trampoline for obtaining higher posts? Do you see yourself in big politics?
– I said and repeat: together with our team, in partnership with Maia Sandu and the PAS, we will implement an electoral program for a five-year period – 2018-2023. A large part of the electoral commitments can be fulfilled during a year, while the systemic proposals, such as the development of large infrastructure projects, ensuring of conditions for urban comfort and supporting of socials projects, will continue to be implemented and will be completed during a full term in office. Namely for this reason, our program was designed for a period of at last five years, which is for two terms. During the first months of the first term in office, we will lay the foundations of an efficient administration by eliminating chaos and corruption, by implementing our view concerning the sustainable development of the capital city and the priorities of the electoral program so that these fully correspond to those of the citizens.
In conclusion, I note that I will run in 2019 for the second term and will ask the voters to support me so that we obtain a majority in the Municipal Council. We are confident that in 2019 we will bank on a solid majority secured by the residents of the municipality so that we could fully implement our electoral program.
Andrei Nastase will be under No. 2 on the ballot.
Earlier, IPN published interviews with Silvia Radu, independent candidate, Maxim Braila, candidate of the People’s Party, Ion Ceban, candidate of the Party of Socialists, Alexandr Roșco, candidate of the Political Party “Our Home – Moldova”, Alexandra Can, candidate of the National Liberal Party and Constantin Codreanu, candidate of the National Unity Party.
