Christmas tree in middle of square is a bad idea - Vasile Ursu

Interim Mayor of the capital, Vasile Ursu, recognizes that the last year experience when the Christmas Tree was installed in the Great National Assembly Square (PMAN) was a failed one. Within the frameworks of the extraordinary session of the City Hall, Ursu requested that persons in charge analyze the problem, keeping in mind the fact that capital residents are used to gather around the Christmas trees near the Arch. The tradition to decorate four Christmas trees near the Arch (also named “the Saint Gates”) on the occasion of winter holidays has been initiated 6 years ago by the former leadership of the City Hall, which avoided this way to cut down tall trees in order to be brought in the PMAN. In 2005, when Ursu was designated interim mayor of the capital, he decided to change the tradition and mount the Christmas tree in the middle of the square. This happened in spite of the protests expressed by ecologists, who claimed the barbarian tradition to chop down Christmas trees when winter holidays approach. At present, Ursu recognizes that, during winter holidays of last year, people ignored the Christmas tree from the centre of the PMAN, continuing to gather near the “Saint Gates”, where panels of peddler photographers were installed, where children had the liberty to run alleys, without being exposed to the risk of being hit by cars continuing to circulate on holidays through PMAN. According to ecologists, Moldova does not have such tall Christmas trees as those decorated in the Great National Assembly Square, they being brought either from Ukrainian or from Romanian Carpathians. In order to purchase and transport such a tree, the municipal budget would pay several tens of thousands of lei.