Chirtoaca’s First 100 Days as Mayor of Chisinau. Info-Prim Neo Review, PART II

Observing the democratic society’s tradition of 100 days, Info-Prim Neo News Agency carries out a series of analysis of the performance of Chisinau administration designated after the last local elections. The first part published on Monday commented on the general impressions and the steps taken by the new Mayor General of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca during the first 100 days of the appointment. In fact, it examined one of the fewest problems with which the mayor dealt successfully in an attempt to identify the intentions and capacities of the incumbent head of the capital city in order to know what to expect and what can expect us from now on. We reviewed the activities without finality with the same purpose because these activities are also significant for the goal we set. [Activities without finality or activities-intentions] The mayor gives the impression that he is framing his own style of administration in Chisinau and that he identified a certain number of major problems and fixed on a number of methods for addressing them. [Attempt No.1] Among the key problems addressed by the new mayor is first of all the problem of unauthorized constructions. He tackled it meticulously, systematically and permanently, by using different techniques that are theoretically correct. But it did not work. He did what he could, but could not find out the names of the persons to be held at least morally accountable for the death of the child crushed in his home under a wall that fell from a nearby unauthorized building. He did not manage to demolish the building that was erected with serious deviations and with the help of a municipal employee holding an important position, who every Monday presented to him more and more optimistic reports about the successful settlement of the problem of unauthorized constructions in the sector in his charge. And this is not only because the local authorities do not have the necessary levers and because the employees of the mayor’s office put up a corporative opposition. The key reason is that the problem of unauthorized constructions cannot be solved in Moldova in the present conditions. Huge, often illegal interests of almost all kinds – financial, political, clan, land-related - prevail in this area. The interests find protection in all the spheres: administration, police, and justice as well as in the society that is used to stealing and allows others to steal. The history says that the period of wild capitalism existed and was almost objective. Recently, the mayor urged his colleagues to take measures to identify the irregularities in the area and make them public “so that the people know that certain state institutions do not do their job”. It was a direct insinuation that the problems derive from the institutions subordinated to the central power. It is true that he made it in the context of investigations aimed at discovering where and when a new draft normative document, which would enable to unconditionally demolish the unauthorized constrictions, disappeared. Judging by his perseverance, the mayor will find the document, will make it perfect and will submit it to the Chisinau Municipal Council for approval. Who knows, maybe this would contribute to overcoming the wild capitalism in Moldova. [Attempt No.2] The second problem insistently addressed by the mayor is the unauthorized parking on the capital city’s streets. He made every effort to ease the traffic at least along two sections of Pushkin Street, before and after the intersection with Stephan the Great Boulevard. He showed everybody that theoretically it is possible. He offered solutions, gave instructions and set deadlines. But all in vain. It would be difficult to find a more suitable explanation that the sabotage. The ‘augments’ of the municipal traffic police cannot be taken seriously. They say that they cannot deal with every car parked illegally; that the people’s guard cannot be involved in these activities as volunteers and that financial resources will be needed to sow fluorescent coats and, attention! – to print special permits… It seems that the behavior of the police derives from the same wild capitalism that hides behind the political system in Moldova. According to the legislation of a democratic state, the municipal police have a double subordination. In reality, it is a single institution that seems to take the shape of a person. The role and levers of the City Hall consist only in transferring money from the local budget for salaries, clothes, equipment, transport, fuel, patrolling and others in time [Attempt No. 3] Not long ago, the Mayor General Dorin Chirtoaca announced his intention to bring the minibuses back to Stephan the Great Boulevard and to Pushkin Street. He seemed convinced when he said that it was an injustice to direct them to the adjacent streets and the people do not agree with this. He did not utter, but the people understood that the return of the minibuses would mean the end of the long period of interim mayoralty in Chisinau, when everything, including the routes of the public transport, was decided by someone else, but not by the local public administration. The heads of the specialized municipal divisions - transport and traffic police - opposed the mayor’s intention invoking that the population did not stage protests and it was the private transporters that wanted this because they strived for profit. Three weeks later, it turned out that the problem was still under examination and that a package of documents was being formulated and would be soon tabled to the mayor. They would then debate the issue and probably decide. Of course, the mayor will receive a well-founded document. The figures, tonnes and kilometers would be probably arranged in such a way to prove that the minibuses must remain where they were sent by the interim mayor Ursu. The figures yet do not have the capacity to say that this is not only the problem of the transporters and not a transport problem. The problem is not purely economic. It is sooner social, if not political. A Liberal mayor, in economy and politics, should probably take into account this component too. The en masse redirection of the minibuses favoured certain categories of people and disfavoured the others. The people that travel by trolleybuses and buses, a large part of who do not pay for the travels and have a slower and calmer lifestyle were favoured. We say it with respect to the old people and invalids that deserved this way of life and the right to make two-three trips a day or maybe fewer. Instead, the active groups of people that use the minibuses were disfavoured. These people travel a lot, pay for the trips as well as taxes. They are active citizens that fuel the economy, the social and medical funds. They did not yet earn money to buy their own car, but constitute the nucleus of the future middle class, which, as it is well known, create the welfare of a nation. These people now have to spent more time and money to reach the new and further stations of the minibuses and other stations. They have to experience crowdedness inside and traffic jams outside. Keeping the situation as it is would compromise the economic growth in the city, and not only. Meanwhile, the first category of people lost from the advantages as the main streets that were freed from minibuses are now full of other kinds of transport. The first 100 days showed that the new mayor general learned what priorities and really important things for the social life of Chisinau are. The about 1,350 days that remained will show us how many of these major problems will be solved. [The next parts of the Info-Prim Neo review “Chirtoaca’s First 100 Days as Mayor of Chisinau” will comment on the mayor’s relations with the municipal functionaries, central administration, citizens, the media, and others]