Head of Municipal Culture Department to be penalised

The interim head of the Culture Department, Leonid Gorceac will be penalised for the statements related to the orders of the President Vladimir Voronin to decorate the Christmas tree, which will be installed in Chisinau downtown, in national style, Vasile Ursu, interim mayor of Chisinau stated at the “The Hour of Press” on Thursday. The leadership of the City Hall did not give any details about the nature of the reprimand. Mayor said it wasn’t the head of state requested a national style for the Christmas tree, because the meeting at the Presidency Gorgeac spoke about wasn’t organised by the president, but by a presidential counsellor. According to Ursu, Gorceac “made some foolish remarks regarding the Presidency and he deserves his punishment”, and “the press has helped spreading this foolishness”. “Someone wanted to be original and to generate useless talks in the society, in order to distract attention from important problems. We would better rake the foliage out of the city”, Ursu said. Starting Monday, the press commented on the initiative to decorate the Christmas tree from the Great National Assembly Square in national style, which at the initiative of the Presidency will be called the “the Christmas Tree of the Country” this year. The interim head of the Municipal Culture Department, Leonid Gorceac told at the session of the City Hall, on December 4 that the president Vladimir Voronin asked the local authorities from Chisinau to decorate the Christmas tree in “national clothes”. Also, at the order of the head of state, it was decided to install the Christmas tree in the Great National Assembly Square, in front of the main entrance in the Government House, although shortly before this, Vasile Ursu recognised that this idea is not very good, because peopled are used to gather at the Christmas tree near the Holy Gates. According to the same source, the head of state also insisted in turning on the music near the Christmas tree during all the winter holydays, despite the requests of the Government to stop this practice. The administration of the city announced that this year, the Christmas tree from the Great National Assembly Square will be 18-19 tall and will be brought from somewhere near Tighina town. The lights on the main Christmas tree of the country will be lit by the head of state and the interim mayor of Chisinau city on December 23.