Mayor general of Chisinau Ion Ceban leveled harsh criticism at the government over its decision to sell the site of the former Republican Stadium to the United States for construction of a New Embassy Compound. He noted the decision was taken in the absence of public consultations at a time when the City Hal had a project to construct a park on that site. Ceban accuses the central administration of not ensuring transparency and said that he complained to the U.S. ambassador about this, IPN reports.

The mayor accuses the government of not holding public consultations in Chisinau for asking the citizens if they want a New U.S. Embassy Compound to be erected in the center of the capital city. Ceban said that the municipal authorities intended to set up a park or to build a contemporary art museum on the site of the former Republic Stadium.

“We should have held consultations and I told the U.S. ambassador about this as the procedures should be transparent. The citizen should know why such a lot is sold. Why shouldn’t we build a park or a contemporary art center there, as it was planned? We even have such a project. We are bothered by the hurry and by the procedure. We know nothing about this transaction,” Ion Ceban stated in the talk show “The Fourth Estate” on N4 TV channel.

Ceban expressed his dissatisfaction with the inclusion of the draft decision to ratify the agreement between the Republic of Moldova and the United States concerning the construction of a new Embassy Compound in the April 20 meeting of the Cabinet. According to the mayor, the central administration takes decisions in nontransparent conditions, without consulting civil society in parallel.

“They take loans of 40 billion lei and no one knows how this money is spent. It is not known how the money intended for the refugees is spent. Where did the planes and trucks of humanitarian aid go? The City Hall can say exactly how many toothbrushes were taken,” stated Ion Ceban.

The bill to sell the site of the former Republican Stadium to the United States for construction of a New Embassy Compound was adopted by the regime controlled by Vlad Plahoniuc in 2018. In 2020, Parliament, on the Socialists’ initiative, repealed the law and the lot returned under public ownership. Later, through the agency of the Constitutional Court, the abrogation of the law was annulled.