City councillors Alexandru Tanase, Vlad Cotet and Galina Talai, elected on the list of the Democratic Party (DP), today announced at the meeting of the Chisinau Municipal Council that they left the Democratic faction to form the Liberal-Democrat group. Alexandru Tanase was named its leader. Councillor Mihai Severovan, elected on the list of the National Liberal Party, has also left the Democratic faction. Although he hasn’t yet joined any other faction, Severovan said he was leaving the former because of personal attacks made by DP president Dumitru Diacov against him. The only one left in the Democrat faction – Oazu Nantoi – is actually on leave of absence and didn’t attend the meeting. When asked whether the newly-formed faction would further be part of the majority coalition, Alexandru Tanase told reporters that they, as a matter of fact, have never been part of it, since the agreement signed on June 24 was a decision made by party leaders and not by the councillors that had entered the Council on party lists. At the same time, Alexandru Tanase stated that the faction wouldn’t ally itself with the Communist councilmen and that it would further support the democratic forces in the Council; yet it would back only the worthy candidates for the offices of deputy mayor. Alexandru Tanase left the Democratic Party on Tuesday, September 18, to join MP Vladimir Filat and his new centre-right political project. Vlad Cotet, Galina Talai and Oazu Nantoi – the three city councillors elected on the list of DP - neither confirmed nor denied the intention to leave the party. Under the legislation in operation, a faction requires a minimum of 3 councillors to exist, which entails the implicit dissolution of the Democratic faction.