Rising like a phoenix from the ashes – Buteni phenomenon as seen by Mihai Tasca, Doctor of Law, senior scientific researcher of the Institute of History, State and Law

The revolt in Buteni village that sparked after the rerun local elections made the people speak about the Buteni phenomenon – a prime example of a collective force that impetuously opposes the system. The insistence manifested by the Buteni residents in the fight for the truth in which they believe is not accidental, says the Doctor of Law Mihai Tasca, who is the author of a monograph about the village and a resident of Buteni. According to historians, Buteni dates back to the reign of Stephan the Great. Other historians say it dates from 1604. One thing is for sure – Buteni is a village with traditions, with yeoman ancestors, says the researcher. The yeomen have always been economically independent. It is a village that does not accept the injustice and that does not surrender. This is a characteristic of the past and present village. Mihai Tasca relates a documented case – in 1937, 90 peasant families from Buteni village, Orhei district, migrated because there was not enough land and because they did not want to bear the abuses on the part of the landowner Ion Botezatu. We can see from this case that the peasants did not want to tolerate the wrongdoings, the researcher says. The present-day residents of Buteni have a team spirit and take decisions in concert, Mihai Tasca says. The villagers that fight for democracy are natives. Those that oppose, not very many, are foreigners, he says. The grandparents and grand grandparents are buried in the village cemetery and the natives worry about the future of the village. Some of those who support the Communist Party’s candidate for mayor of Buteni are not natives. They easily changed their place of residence and they do not know what it means to be a local, Mihai Tasca says. The supporters and adherents of the ruling party, with several persons that have economic interests, managed to attract the groups that can be easily influenced: the impoverished residents, the illiterate persons and others. According to Mihai Tasca, another example of consistence manifested by the residents of Buteni is the fact that they condemned the priest of the village who decided to go into politics and became councillor on behalf of the ruling party. They did it because they are Christians. Few settlements in Moldova can boast about having two churches. Several hundreds of residents went to the Moldovan Metropolitan Church and demanded that the priest be replaced. Shortly afterwards, he was substituted. Mihai Tasca is convinced that the residents will not give in. This is a sign that the village comes to maturity, a prime test that shows that the things can change in the whole country, the researcher reasoned. The problems in Buteni village appeared after the court invalidated the results of the elections for mayor, according to which the candidate Anatol Postolache scored a comfortable win. Postolache was accused of violating the Electoral Code. CEC announced rerun elections for July 1, but the election outcome was against invalidated. CEC arranged rerun elections in Buteni for October 14, but the villagers refused to vote because Postolache was excluded from the race. The fourth attempt to hold local elections in Buteni on December 16 was again cut short by a group of disgruntled villagers.