Chișinău's budget deadlock: A political spectacle
Chișinău continues to operate without an approved budget for the current year.
While the capital's City Hall administration blames a political deadlock with local councilors, the PAS and PSRM factions in the Chișinău Municipal Council (CMC) argue that the current budget draft fails to meet citizens' needs and is being used for electoral purposes.
Former municipal councilor Victor Chironda anticipates the city will not have an approved budget before the parliamentary elections, criticizing how the local administration has been turned into a "political spectacle."
"In Moldova, we have over nine hundred city halls, but only the Chișinău City Hall has failed to adopt a budget for two consecutive years. It's only here that things play out like a Broadway show, where all the attention and all the cameras are on the mayor," Chironda stated on the "Spațiul Public" program on Radio Moldova.
Dumitru Ivanov, a councilor from the Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) on the CMC, noted on the same program that the budget draft lacks crucial social programs and investments in educational and transport infrastructure.
"Missing are the programs that existed previously, such as the personal assistance program for adults and the heating compensation program. Furthermore, we asked for increased allocations for the suburbs and for education. Specifically, we want to begin constructing new schools and kindergartens in Chișinău and move to the design phase. We also asked for more funds to improve the quality of public transport. These are the essential elements missing from the current municipal budget, and the City Hall stubbornly refuses to include them," Ivanov affirmed.
Ala Ursu-Antoci, a municipal councilor from the Party of Socialists (PSRM), pointed out that the budget consultation process was a mere formality, suggesting the deadlock is more about electoral calculations than administrative vision.
"The budget was consulted only for the sake of it, just to tick a box and show external partners that we don't just put together a budget arbitrarily. The City Hall executive is running an election campaign, organizing many meetings with ambassadors, and talking about how constructive they are and how bad the opposition is. Therefore, everything the Chișinău City Hall is doing today is nothing more than an electoral farce," Ursu-Antoci declared.
The municipal councilors rejected the idea of dissolving the CMC, which is unable to approve the budget, arguing that this would block numerous administrative procedures and leave the city without minimal operational functionality.
"We need to understand what the process of dissolving the Municipal Council actually entails, because it's not a matter of dissolving it today and having elections and a new composition tomorrow. It's a longer period of time to prepare for elections and cover costs. During that entire period, the municipality of Chișinău would not only lack a budget, but a whole series of processes and procedures within the Chișinău City Hall would be blocked," explained Dumitru Ivanov.
Ala Ursu-Antoci, the PSRM councilor of the CMC, claims the mayor commissioned polls showing that, in case of the CMC's dissolution, he would obtain fewer seats, which is why he abandoned the idea.
On the same program, the PAS representative declared that their faction would insist the municipal budget draft for the current year be approved with proposed improvements but would also request the dismissal of the CMC secretary.
At the same time, the PSRM could support the budget only if the additional powers granted to the mayor to access certain credits, loans, and grants without CMC approval were eliminated, and the opposition's requirements were included, Ursu-Antoci stated.
It should be noted that representatives of both the National Alternative Movement, led by Ion Ceban, and the Chișinău City Hall did not respond to the invitation to participate in the debate on Radio Moldova.
Chișinău is currently operating on a provisional budget approved by a mayoral order on January 2, 2025. This budget projects revenues of 8.17 billion lei and expenditures of 8.75 billion, with a deficit of 580 million lei. According to previous statements from the capital's administration, the budget was proposed seven times but failed to pass either due to a lack of a quorum or because of abstentions from PAS and PSRM councilors.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
