Conflict between Mayor General and CMC is imaginary. Info-Prim Neo interview with Alexandru Corduneanu, leader of the PPCD faction in the CMC

[ - Last year, the Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC) had two decisional majorities. Would you speak about their efficiency?] - Regretfully, no majority was efficient in the Chisinau Municipal Council – neither after Mihai Ghimpu was elected as president nor after Eduard Musuc took over the post. None of the two majorities proposed a working program for 2008 or 2009. I think that there were no “majorities” in fact. There were majorities when voting certain draft decisions and majorities formed in the hall. The coalition formed in the summer of 2007 by signing a protocol of intentions did not exist because the protocol was signed by certain allies, but the majority group was joined by other allies. There is no substratum that could connect certain parts of the CMC. Few mechanisms of the CMC work as they should. The meetings could be better prepared and the implementation of decisions should be monitored. [ - How did the relations between the CMC and the Mayor General develop last year and what effects did they have on the Chisinau residents?] - There is a conflict between the CMC and the Mayor General that, as any other conflict, does not have a substratum and is imaginary. The major obligation of the Mayor General as executive power is to carry out the Council’s decisions. He must submit proposals how to plan the work, but he does not have a working plan either for years of government or for one year at least. Therefore, the municipal budget remains the only plan. Such an attitude has other reasons than those for developing the capital city. The strategies for each development area approved earlier by the CMC, such as the housing strategy, the strategy for developing the public transport and others, are not taken into account. Normally, the mayor of Chisinau, as the mayors of other European cities, must be elected not by the people but by the Council, because the mayor must be a kind of director or administrator of the city that represents a legislative majority. Practically no one now assumes responsibilities for developing the city. Everything is in a defused state, like in an administrative eternity. [ - What can your faction and the Council do together to improve the situation in Chisinau in 2009?] - We started to fulfill the promises made to the voters in 2007 and will continue doing so. We will further support the proposed draft decisions, including raising teachers’ salaries by 20% and the salaries in the healthcare system. We will promote the idea of strategic planning that should exist between the City Hall and the CMC. No town survives without planning.