The councilors of the European People’s Party of Moldova (PPEM) withdrew their signatures from the agreement to form a pro-European alliance on the Chisinau Municipal Council. The group’s leader Oazu Nantoi told a news conference that he and his colleagues are deeply concerned about the fact that the apparent party doctrines manifested in a hysteric and populist manner annihilated the common responsibility of the councilors before the city, IPN reports.

“We accepted to join the alliance in the hope that its existence will allow us to contribute to solving the problems faced by the city. We ascertained that the promises of the so-called pro-Europeans at the local level are also a shield for promoting personal schemes and interests,” stated Oazu Nantoi, noting that it wasn’t yet possible to establish a transparent partnership between the Council and the mayor.

According to Nantoi, the group will not act in opposition within the Council, but will insist on its priorities. Among these are the elimination of corruption and conflicts of interests from the City Hall and the Council, restructuring of the City Hall by reducing the number of employees and choosing personnel at public contests, adoption of the regulations governing the activity of the Council and introduction of the electronic vote.

The councilors who withdrew their signatures from the agreement signed on September 3 include Oazu Nantoi, Ala Nemerenko, Veaceslav Bulat, Ruslan Codreanu, and Victor Lutenko. Last November, the PPEM councilor Ion Stefanita also left the alliance. Without Stefanita’s vote, the pro-European alliance does not hold a majority of seats on the CMC, which includes 51 councilors.