Pasat's advert banned by Chisinau City Hall

The Chisinau City Hall ordered taking down the advertisements with the leader of the Humanist Party (PUM) Valeriu Pasat, arguing street advertising in Russian is banned in the capital city, while the adverts in Romanian contain mistakes, Info-Prim Neo reports, quoting a communique from the party. Advertisements with the text “The guestarbaiter returned home! He rejected all the proposals made by foreign billionaires and officials and came back because he loves his mother country!” appeared in Chisinau last week in Romanian and Russian. The party's spokesman Dumitru Chubashenko said they yesterday received the City Hall's ordinance to take the ads down during 24 hours because street advertising in Russian is banned in Chisinau, while the word 'guestarbaiter' in the advert in Romanian was written incorrectly and there was also a rude word. “The Humanist Party regards such an act as use of administrative resources by the local Liberal-Democrat power, which is aimed at torpedoing Valeriu Pasat's information campaign,” said Chubashenko. The PUM stressed the linguistic legislation does not ban the use of Russian in street posters. “It is the City Hall that breaks the linguistic legislation, interpreting the law to the detriment of the Russian language,” the spokesman added. Valeriu Pasat sent a letter to the Mayor General of Chisinau Dorin Chirtoaca, asking that he explain the actions of the City Hall's employees. Asked by journalists, Dorin Chirtoaca said he did not made an order to take those adverts down, saying such actions are within the competence of the deputy mayors. He also said the people form opinions on the basis of the steps taken by those who post advertisements, not the mistakes they may contain.