Opinion: Preparations for the Political Battle for Chisinau Are Underway

Vladimir ROTAR

The ruling party has more than enough motives to "do away with" the current mayor of the Moldovan capital as soon as possible

The Action and Solidarity Party continues its systematic moves to establish full control over the country's key institutions of power, sanctioning regular media and political attacks on the opposition elements that remain there. Perhaps, one of the latest targets was the mayor of Chisinau, Ion Ceban - at least, the other day he stated an alleged surveillance and the attack being prepared against him to "defame his image", possibly with searches and arrest. Although Prosecutor General Alexandru Stoianoglo, who has firsthand knowledge of being pressurized by the authorities, reported there were no relevant criminal cases in the office, it is not difficult to imagine how "inconvenient" the figure of the current Chisinau mayor is for the new authorities. The short period of PAS's actual rule of the republic was enough to understand there will be no good communication between the ruling triad of president-parliament-government and the Chisinau mayor's office. The past few weeks only have already witnessed a number of squabbles. One of the first was caused by the scandal with the introduction of mandatory paid testing of education workers unvaccinated against the coronavirus, when Ion Ceban, in fact, canceled this decision in the capital. Another conflict was triggered by the pressure on municipalities, which Ceban told was exerted by authorities, and reducing their autonomy. He immediately reminded the government that one of the items in the PAS electoral program provided for an increase in the financial independence of municipal authorities, including by retaining a part of the income tax of legal entities in the local budget, so that localities have opportunities for development. He threatened that in case of failure to fulfill the promises, the mayors are ready to protest. PAS does not even try to hide its dissatisfaction with the actions and statements of the Chisinau mayor, openly hinting that he has become "pretty vocal". And although it should not be ruled out that Ceban's stories about the impending attacks against him are still more of a preventive protective measure than a statement of a real threat, the fact is that the center has more than enough reasons to do away with the mayor as soon as possible. And certainly, this is not just about the unflattering assessments regularly heard from the mayor's office. The ruling party understands that Ion Ceban undoubtedly belongs to the small pool of politicians capable of leading the opposition movement against the current regime during the next electoral campaigns. The politician has good starting positions for this. The last two years have been quite successful for him, in contrast to his colleagues in the PSRM. Following his unexpected victory in the elections in Chisinau, in a fair and competitive struggle against an obvious favorite, the capital was "handed over" to a leftist politician for the first time in the thirty years of Moldova's independence. At the same time, the strongest advantage for the newly-elected mayor was that the disastrous mayoralty of liberal Dorin Chirtoaca lowered the bar for his successor, so that any success of the new mayor looks even more prominent. And he did succeed enough. Of course, the last two years can hardly be defined as a period of some grandiose renaissance of Chisinau, but still something has been done to build a modern European city. In this regard, Ion Ceban exploits several beneficial topics at once: the protection of historical buildings, the fight against sporadic building, the beautification and expansion of parkland. One of the main achievements was a large-scale renewal of the public transport fleet, which was positively assessed by the majority of residents of the capital. Besides, the "socialist" reputation did not prevent the mayor from establishing ties with Russian, Romanian and Ukrainian cities, drawing some investments and strengthening international relations. An important point was also the fact that, seemingly, control over the municipal council was finally established this year, which will be of a great use in the future. All this allows Ion Ceban to gradually amass his political gains, which many experts believe will be used in the future as part of a new stage of his political career. It is possible that it will be pursued within the Socialist Party of the Republic of Moldova, where the mayor has temporarily suspended his membership. According to sources, Ceban leads one of several party factions and once even claimed the formation chairman post. However, the latter was eventually given back to Igor Dodon. The second option may be a solo career and starting his own centrist movement. In the meantime, Ion Ceban might keep on criticizing the authorities, converting their subsequent mistakes into his own election points, as well as consolidating municipalities for a further war with the center for expanding autonomy and a more equitable income distribution. The PAS is unlikely to stand by and let the popularity of the opposition mayor grow, as well as to tolerate a "leftist" politician at the head of the capital of a dynamically Euro-integrating country for a long time. So, in light of an inevitable and probably about-to-begin "weeding out" of every sprout of dissent from the Moldovan political field, we can expect that the Chisinau mayor's office will be one of the epicenters of this process.