“In last Sunday’s elections, voting for Dorin Chirtoaca, the residents of Chisinau, as the Socialist leader Igor Dodon said, chose the ‘lesser evil’. Logically, it results that Zinaida Grecheanyi and, implicitly, the Party of Socialists, which suffered a defeat, represent the ‘greater evil’,” stated political analyst Gheorghe Cojocaru. In an interview for Radio Free Europe, he said that even if the Socialist leader would not agree with such a logical deduction, the statements made by this ricocheted back to his party, IPN reports.
Gheorghe Cojocaru noted that what for some is the ‘lesser evil’ is for others the ‘greater evil’. “In Chisinau, the people had to choose between two political courses that exclude each other, with the pro-European one garnering more votes. The ‘greater evil’ resides rather in the division of society according to these two opposite vectors and the duty of the responsible politicians is to look into the future and to draw it closer by joining society, starting from Moldova’s position in Southeastern Europe,” said the analyst.
The historian stated that even if the powers of the mayor general of Chisinau municipality are strictly administrative in character, he is a top figure on the national political arena. From this viewpoint, the election of Dorin Chirtoaca as mayor for the third consecutive time is a guarantee that the democratic course will be kept and the situation of the pro-European coalition will be thus improved, while the society’s confidence in the road to the EU will be strengthened.
According to Gheorghe Cojocaru, this orientation will undoubtedly win if Chisinau becomes a city with modern infrastructure and a civilized aspect, with many implemented projects and with welcoming and well-educated people. A new successful tenure of Dorin Chirtoaca would positively influence the process of uniting society and, on the contrary, will discourage it even more if Chisinau remains dusty and underdeveloped.
Asked about the importance of the relations of the new-old mayor of Chisinau with the central authorities, the analyst said these relations are very important, especially because Chisinau is the capital city where the high-ranking guests from abroad come and it is the image with which they practically identity Moldova. Therefore, the modernization of the capital city must be a joint preoccupation of the municipal authorities and the central ones.
