Press Release
on the organization of the debate “The break-up of the majority coalition in the Chisinau Council: reasons and implications, local and national”, the 51^st installment of the “Developing Political Culture through Public Debates” Series
Public debates series held by the news agency IPN in its conference room with the support of the German Foundation “Hanns Seidel”

Debate 51 brought together Ion Ceban, the president of the Socialist group in the city council; Ion Cebanu, the president of the Liberal group; Oazu Nantoi, the president of the European Platform's group;Elena Panuş, the president of Our Party's group; Ghenadie Botnaru, member of the Communist group; and Igor Boţan, executive director of ADEPT, the Project's standing expert.

An important news story published the day before demonstrated in a very convincing way the topicality of the issue planned to be be debated on February 23. Its headline read: “The National Anticorruption Center has carried out searches at the Chisinau City Hall, detaining 12 civil servants as part of 35 criminal cases”.

The story also points to serious faults in how the municipality is being managed, with the responsibility being shared by both the Mayor's Office and the City Council, or the CMC.

This alarming situation, which obviously hasn't developed overnight, was preceded by another piece of news two weeks ago, when the European Platform's group announced it was dropping out of the (nominally) pro-European coalition in the CMC. The lack of stable support for the city's executive branch in recent years, compounded by poor control from both the national and municipal legislative branch, indicates that the problems in the municipality might not end here. And, given Chisinau's role in the life of Moldovan society, this might forebode a new wave of escalation at national level.

In this context, the participants spoke about the causes and consequences of the ruling coalition's breaking up in the CMC. 

Oazu Nantoi, head of the group of the Electoral Bloc “European People’s Platform – Iurie Leanca”, said that he and his colleagues had expectations of the cooperation between the mayor, the City Hall’s staff and the CMC. “Regretfully, we lost several months and ascertained that something goes wrong. Earlier, we considered that we must draw up a list of priorities for the city and look for those majorities that will vote to solve the given problems. We must know all the heroes from the CMC,” he stated.

Ion Cebanu, head of the group of the Liberal Party (PL), said it is regrettable that the councilors of the electoral bloc withdrew. “There is always someone who assumes responsibility for governance and there is the opposition. That’s why the idea of making effort to do something together does not work. We must think about the future steps. The PL is ready to form part of an alliance depending on the priorities so as to deal together with these priorities. This is not a novelty. In 2007-2009, similar attempts were made and these were unsuccessful. There must be an alliance that would assume responsibility for governance with the good and bad sides,” he said, adding that the termination of the accord was aimed at forming an alliance with the involvement of the Socialists.

The head of the Socialist group Ion Ceban said there are a multitude of problems in the municipality of Chisinau and this is the reason why they resorted to the dismissal of a number of functionaries. “We tried to make things more transparent. We sent 500 draft decisions back for reexamination because there were suspicions that these pursued particular goals. For the first time in the last ten years, we saw the functionaries of the City Hall behaving absolutely inappropriately. We are against voting for packages of decisions. We must bring things in order,” he stated.

Elena Panus, who heads the group of the “Our Party”, noted that she and her colleagues in the very first meeting of the CMC announced that they will not take part in the formation of ruling or opposition alliances. The CMC no longer worked for the people’s interests namely because of the alliances that were formed and then dissolved. “We consider that there is no place for politics in the CMC. The councilors must work for the benefit of the people. We had two meetings of the CMC after the dissolution of the alliance and everything went smooth. The meetings started on time, the issues were debated and the decisions were taken in accordance with the people’s interests,” she stated.

Communist councilor Ghenadie Botnaru said there is no new coalition in the CMC, as the Liberals assert. “We didn’t discuss something like this. The problems faced by the city are well known – illegal constructions, kiosks, roads, garbage, etc. These necessitate technical, not political solutions. The specialists must contribute to dealing with the problems. There are a number of draft decisions that have been discussed for over half a year and continue to be sent back for reexamination. The rapporteurs who are municipal functionaries do not even try to correct something and submit them again for consideration. We are drafting a number of decisions. One of them envisions the exclusion of reexamination because this is not a normal practice,” he said.

Igor Botan, standing expert of IPN’s project, said that when we speak about the public administration, we start from the people’s interests. “The fact that the alliance was terminated at municipal level is perceived negatively by the people. It is expected that the councilors will continue to quarrel between them and will then vote hundreds of draft decisions in a package,” stated the expert. He noted that namely at such debates they should discuss why the people become disappointed after they vote for someone and this way the people can be taught how to vote so as not to regret later.

The Agency published 7 news stories on the debate (see the English version of www.ipn.md): on 23.02.16, “Reasons and consequences of dissolution of coalition on Chisinau Council, IPN debate” - http://www.ipn.md/en/special/74952; “Igor Botan: Policies for people, not politics are needed in CMC” - http://www.ipn.md/en/special/74954; “Opinions of Chisinau councilors about searches performed by anticorruption officers at City Hall” - http://www.ipn.md/en/societate/74958; on 24.02.16, “Oazu Nantoi: Chisinau is hostage to rivalries between central and municipal authorities” - http://www.ipn.md/en/politica/74965; “Ion Cebanu: PL wants alliance with well-defined objectives on CMC” - http://www.ipn.md/en/politica/74966; “Socialist councilor: Problems of Chisinau must be solved regardless of political color” - http://www.ipn.md/en/politica/74967;  .
“Councilor of “Our Party”: It’s harder to solve problems when there are majority alliances” - http://www.ipn.md/en/politica/74961.

Valeriu Vasilica, director of IPN