The local elections are over. It is for the first time that Chișinău City Hall will be led by a pro-Eastern mayor-Ivan Ceban. He declared that after his seat will be validated, he will suspend his membership in the Socialist Party, but will he “suspend” the activity patterns of this party?

The Socialist Party has stood out all these years as a continuator of the communist policies from which they actually descended, wearing the clothing of lack of transparency, restricting access to information, clientelism and phobia to European values.

The behavior of the new mayor depends very much on the new composition of the Municipal Council, Chișinău’s decision making body, from which the Socialists hold 22 mandates out of 51. 

The Chișinău Municipal operates on a simple majority bases, and to obtain it Ivan Ceban needs four more councillors. Who could they be? The Shor Party which holds two seats, the Democratic Party also with two, or the Communists Party with one?

However at the moment, the Socialist Party is officially in an alliance with the ACUM Bloc, which has 19 seats. The ACUM Bloc could be supported by the Liberal Party, that holds three seats, and National Unity Party with one seat or New Force Movement also with one seat.

The next few days will make it clear whether the fragile alliance between the ACUM Bloc and the Socialist Party will be able to support a majority within the Chișinău Municipal Council. And if the alliance proves to be strong then Mayor Ceban will have to be fully transparent comply with anticorruption norms and respect all the European standards. 

And if not, then the ACUM Governance could be affected by Igor Dodon’s decisions, but does he have the strength to assume the government at this stage? We hope that next week we will have the answers to these questions.