The group of the Electoral Bloc “European People’s Platform – Iurie Leanca” withdrew from the majority alliance formed on the Chisinau Municipal Council (CMC) because it became disappointed in the cooperation between the mayor general, the staff of the Chisinau City Hall and the Council. However, the termination of the accord didn’t affect the work of the CMC. On the contrary, things started to move on as regards the adoption of decisions aimed at improving the situation in the municipality. The issue was discussed by the leaders of the groups of the Party of Socialists, the European People’s Party of Moldova, the “Our Party” and the Party of Communists on the CMC in the public debate “Dissolution of majority coalition on the Chisinau Municipal Council: reasons and consequences at local and national levels”. On the other hand, the leader of the Liberal group said the ending of the former pro-European coalition was aimed at forming another coalition, with the Socialist councilors. The debate was staged by IPN News Agency in partnership with Radio Moldova.
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.
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 Panuş, 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.
The public debate “Dissolution of majority coalition on the Chisinau Municipal Council: reasons and consequences at local and national levels” is the 51st installment of the series of debates “Developing political culture by public debates” that are organized with the support of the German foundation “Hanns Seidel”.
