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

Observing the democratic societies’ 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 previous parts of the review published between October 29 and 31 described the steps taken by the new Mayor General of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca and his relations with the municipal functionaries and central administration. The fourth part will refer to the mayor’s relations with the political parties, in particular with the factions of the Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC) [Post-scriptum with prolongation] What was not said in the previous parts is that more than 100 days into his mayorship, Chirtoaca has never met publicly with top state officials. But he met with practically all the ambassadors in Chisinau, including of the most important countries in the world, as well as with representatives of all the European and international organizations and missions working in Moldova. It is not precisely known who this initiative belongs to and who is to blame for such relations. One thing is for sure – the lack of communication will greatly affect the young Dorin Chirtoaca and the experienced Vladimir Voronin, Marian Lupu and Vasile Tarlev. We cannot say who will be affected more judging by the results of the elections that took place in Chisinau in the last few years. Adopting the same approach of isolation and public denigration in their dealings with Dorin Chirtoaca, the top state officials prove lack of political inspiration, which demonstrates once again that there are no objective reasons for such behaviour. What was expected to work in the relations with Mayor Serafim Urecheanu cannot a-priori be used against the “sinless” Dorin Chirtoaca. The reaction of the voter will be rather the opposite of the one expected by the central authorities. [Political function and behaviour of politician] But the politician Dorin Chirtoaca did not make much progress in the communication with other politicians and political parties, especially the ones represented in the CMC. At least the public opinion knows not very much about such contacts and this, in public’s view, means lack of communication. But before this, we will once again refer to the speculations about the political or administrative character of the post of Mayor General of Chisinau. It is evident that a position obtained in a political struggle, according to political criteria and with political means cannot be apolitical. Respectively, the person that holds this post is a political person too, especially if this person is still the vice president of a political party – the Liberal Party (PL). The process of constituting a majority coalition in the CMC, especially the contacts of the PL leader Mihai Ghimpu, had been in the spotlight for a long time. But the role of the Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca remained in the shadow. We came to the conclusion that he also has a political function, which he cannot or does not have the right to delegate to somebody else. Maybe it is a good thing that the holding of talks with other political parties is the prerogative of the president of the party. But the people elected another person as mayor and they have the right to know his role and potential in political talks. Throughout this period, the Liberal Party and the leader Ghimpu held no press conference to make known the results of the talks, but the vice president-mayor was obliged to do this because his image and the image of his party, which is the governing party in Chisinau to a certain extent, cannot be inferior to the image of the party that governs the country – the Communist Party (PCRM). Maybe we are not right, but since 2001 until present, PCRM held no press conference to publicly express its position on a topic or another. Instead, the leader of PCRM, as head of the state held many conferences that had significant effects. Even if President Vladimir Voronin does not communicate and does not negotiate publicly with other political parties, he communicates with the people, expresses and imposes his viewpoint. The axiom “Respect your rival and they will respect you” can be relevant here... But the friends and the well intentioned people must be respected in all the circumstances... [The last part of the Info-Prim Neo review “Chirtoaca’s First 100 Days as Mayor of Chisinau” will describe the mayor’s relations with the people and the press and will be published at the beginning of next week.]