Syndrome of absenteeism in Chisinau Municipal Council. Info-Prim Neo analysis

The latest meeting of the Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC) was suspended owing to the absence of the quorum needed to make decisions. Traditionally, the ignoring or abandonment of the meetings forms part of the political arsenal of the Opposition. It was weird to see that the syndrome of nonattendance at the CMC meetings, since the last local elections until present, was characteristic especially of the majority coalition. This is a serious problem, regardless of its causes. The latest example is as relevant as possible. [Correct appeals and declared reasons] The Christian-Humanist-Democratic (CUD) faction and the Communist faction that do not form part of the majority coalition were the first to leave the meeting hall. Nineteen councillors of the 45 attending went out of the room overall. Twenty-six councillors remained to attend. This is the minimum number necessary for the meeting to go on. The declared reason was the concern for the public finances. The CUD councillor Oleg Oniscenco interrupted the voting on the agenda and announced his intention to leave the hall after the Council rejected his proposal to check the correctness of the money transfer made to Termocom SA, as decided by the court. “Millions of lei are involved and someone wants to hide these illegalities,” Oniscenco said. One of the councillors that remained in the hall urged his colleagues to be serious and responsible and work to achieve what they planned during the election campaign. Yet, none of the items on the agenda could be adopted shortly afterwards. For instance, the information on the morbidity through mumps in the municipality that was classed as epidemic and the actions of the local authorities in such a situation could not be heard. No decisions over the councillors’ salaries could be made, but this is a pressing problem as the municipal councillors have not been paid since they began to work after elections and because this can explain, indirectly, the councillors’ unwillingness to work. [Councillor of the Social-Democratic faction Emil Gutu] said then that the councillors did not attend because the CMC chairman Mihai Ghimpu decided to call the meeting on Tuesday, through the CMC meetings for many years have been held on Thursday and his decision was described as unfounded. Gutu specified that the Boards of the ministries usually convene on Tuesday, while Thursday is reserved for the meetings of the local public authorities. Emil Gutu, who does not work for a state organisation, said that when he was elected councillor he rescheduled his Thursday meetings to which he summoned 100 persons, for Tuesday. “And now I learned that the meeting will take place on Tuesday only because somebody agreed with someone else to meet somewhere”. Gutu referred to the twinning agreement between Iasi and Chisinau signed on January 24. His Social-Democratic faction accused the Liberal Party, from the position of a majority coalition partner, of using the situation to gather political capital, through the event was to be promoted as of the whole Council. [Everyone with their interests and righteousness] While the councillors were deciding whether to announce a pause or not through lack of quorum, the leader of the Social-Democratic faction Eduard Musuc was seen on the City Hall’s corridors. [The president of CMC and of the Liberal Party Mihai Ghimpu] replied: “You should not cause provocation by saying that somebody agreed with someone else, because while you say that the councillors have meetings at the ministry, your councillor is walking along the corridor with the phone …”. [The leader of the Liberal-Democratic faction Alexandru Tanase] said that the reason why CMC cannot work is related to the allocation of plots of land for a Chisinau beer producer. “I have such a feeling because, as far as we are concerned, the land commission did not convene and if we hold a meeting the next days again we will not have the quorum.” [According to the leader of the Moldova-Noastra Alliance faction Pavel Caba,] the beer producer submitted an investment project asking to be allotted an additional lot of 370 square metres that is situated between the “red lines” and the zone adjoining a private construction, which could not be auctioned off anyway if not given to the investor. Mihai Ghimpu said that this land should be offered at a commercial price. At the same time, he said that certain factions have an interest in this land, but gave no names. “What do you not understand? – They gave a masterstroke, gained posts and do not come to the meetings; they submit projects avoiding the municipal divisions and the Council’s regulations. This is the problem”. Some of those that left the meeting hall demonstratively were also accused of having an interest in the given land. [Attempts to decipher subtexts] Asked later to comment on the situation in the CMC, the leader of the AMN faction Pavel Caba told Info-Prim Neo that he cannot say much because he had been absent for over a month. But he said that they probably prepared the exit of those that left the last meeting; Oniscenco caused a scandal”. He also said that Ghimpu and Musuc had discussions, but does not know how they ended. Caba specified that he asked Mihai Ghimpu to convene all the councillors from the coalition and the party presidents to discuss this situation that it not at all favourable for the CMC. [For his part, the Social-Democratic leader Eduard Musuc] told Info-Prim Neo that the CMC meetings have been organised this way in the last two months and a half, stressing that “CMC must properly plan its work and then the councillors will attend and the results will be productive”. Musuc said that he is not angry at the Liberal Party. Simply, there are problems inside the coalition that must be solved”. [Subjective observations] The former Opposition has not yet learned sufficient norms of behaviour for working as part of the coalition at municipal level or the ultimative communication, including by apparent or hidden absence from the CMC meetings is one of the main instruments used consciously for not yet declared purposes. Or maybe we should take into account both of the models of behaviour in order to understand the situation as well as the prospects of the present composition of the CMC. Members of the Liberal Party’s faction, which has the largest number of councillors, manifest an evident combative, almost revolutionary spirit at the CMC meetings. The blockage of the central rostrum in an emotive style when a leader of an Opposition faction wanted to speak not according to the regulations, characterises the spirits of the Liberal councilors. The councilors of PCRM and PPCD in the previous CMC had a similar behaviour, but their intolerance was fuelled by the fact that they held a majority in the Council. The Liberal councilors do not hold a majority. At the same time, they do not manifest a conciliatory attitude, including towards their coalition colleagues. It seems that they look at their colleagues from their idealist and revolutionary positions, considering them as a necessary evil. They prefer to bank on the administrative instruments that are at the disposal of the party’s leaders, one as mayor general and the other as chairman of the CMC. The negative aspect of such behaviour is that the Liberal councilors do not understand that the ideals cannot be achieved and the major changes cannot be implemented without allies and without experience, including political. From this viewpoint, the Liberal Party is to blame for the syndrome of nonattendance at the CMC as they provoke it or provide motives for it. The relatively good side is that PL imposes a pronounced dose of non-conformism in the City Council The representatives of the other factions in the coalition are or believe themselves to be more experienced from political point of view. In concert or separately they play a game of cat and mouse in which the majority faction almost always plays the role of the mouse. One of the instruments is the absence of the quorum so that the unwanted decisions could not be made. As a result of such acts, the chairman of the CMC could not be elected for half a year and this made the Council practically non-functional. The municipal budget for this year was passed in the same manner – on the last one hundred metres and with a worrying minimum of votes. For this reason, there are a multitude of internal problems related to its fulfillment. There will also be external problems, related to the relations with the central authorities. Such behaviour is within political limits as long as it does not turn into a play with the fire. The fire of the future local elections, which should not necessarily take place in three years, as well as of the parliamentary elections of 2009 could burn the “wings” of a number of parties from the present municipal coalition, especially and first of all of those that consider themselves more experienced and “cleverer”. [P.S.] Before the failed meeting of the CMC last week, an activist of a faction that forms part of the ruling coalition was seen discussing with the leader of the PCRM faction Svetlana Popa. The discussions were held along corridors, as it is usually done when the matters are important and should not be intercepted. After the given discussions, Svetlana Popa went directly to the representative of an inspection authority of the central administration and former PCRM candidate in the 2007 local elections, who was in the meeting hall. Shortly afterwards, the PCRM faction left the hall and the coalition could not continue working as the quorum was not present. Maybe this is a simple coincidence... [P.P.S.] Perhaps, it would be appropriate to change the title of the analysis “Syndrome of absenteeism in CMC” into “Syndrome of nonattendance of CMC” as not only the councilors but the City Council in general and the majority coalition in particular do not have a permanent presence on the political arena and in the life of the Chisinau residents.