The Chisinau City Council today failed to approve an already well-overdue 2024 municipal budget, as the 24 votes in favor were not enough for approval in the first reading.

The draft budget provides for revenues of 7.72 billion lei, expenses of 8.37 billion, and a resulting deficit of .65 billion lei, as presented by the city’s chief financial officer Olesea Pșenițchi.

The draft budget received 20 votes from Mayor Ion Ceban’s MAN group, 2 from the Communists and one each from Partidul Nostru and Renastere Party. The 19-strong PAS group and 5 Socialists abstained, while DA’s councilor voted against.

“It’s such a shame what we have come to, that you haven’t shown political maturity and refused to get into the essence of things regarding the proposed budget. You could have proposed amendments for the second reading. But no, you refused to demonstrate any will to change anything”, fumed MAN’s Anatol Turchin.

PAS leader Zinaida Popa responded that her group just couldn’t endorse “an incompetent budget that is not focused on solving people’s problems”. “These people are in agony, because they got used to having a majority here in the CMC to vote for all their nonsense”, declared Popa.

Deputy Mayor Olga Ursu also added her regrets: “Many projects have been started in Chisinau and I don’t want to list them all here. There are more projects than ever before, including in education, health care, social protection, infrastructure, and not just roads, including in the suburbs. If I were you, I would be ashamed for letting down the suburban mayors that came to attend the meeting this morning.”

Ursu added that the Mayor’s Office is withdrawing the draft 2024 budget considering that it failed to gather a majority of at least 26 out of 51 votes.