Chișinău at a crossroads? City mayor discusses the refugee crisis, EU integration and Moldova’s future

Photo courtesy of Ion Ceban (Facebook)

ADAM REICHARDT: I would like to start with a question about the situation in Moldova and get your perspective as mayor of the biggest city, the capital city. How has the war in Ukraine changed Moldova? And how has it changed the situation in your city specifically since February 2022?

ION CEBAN: There were several major challenges related to the economic and social situation. If to speak about social situation, of course, it was a difficult to organize and manage the refugee crisis. For us it was really very challenging because Chișinău was the main hub for receiving the refugees in Moldova. The first refugees that crossed the border were housed in the municipal hub, which at that time could accommodate from 1,000 to 3,000, even 4,000 people. We set up 45 centres and we had days when it was necessary to accommodate and provide hot meals and all kind of care: medical care, social assistance, psychological assistance, especially to women and kids, before they left Moldova. Refugees generally stayed three days to five days in Chișinău before moving on. This happened mainly until May 15th 2022. After that, the situation became a little bit easier to manage. Fortunately, we had a lot of people come out and help. There were civilians who provided meals, clothes and other necessities, but there were also private businesses which were involved in helping to manage this process.

We dispatched at that time more than 800 public servants to manage the crisis, which dealt only with crisis management. More info can be found on our dedicated site: help.chisinau.md. Of course now it’s a big challenge because there are officially 33,000 Ukrainians in the city; and out of them 8,000 are kids. I say officially, but we estimate that the number of people could be much higher. Now the biggest challenge is to integrate these people into the society. This includes enrolling the kids in schools and kindergartens, creating and offering jobs and other ways to connect them with Moldovan society. And we are doing that in Chișinău.

Of course, the second big challenge is related to the energy crisis. There was a period of time when the price of gas, for example, was seven times higher than it was in December 2021. The rising prices of electricity and gas have definitely influenced the financial situation in the city. The prices for raw materials which were being imported from Ukraine also went up substantially. This had an impact on the budget and certain projects weren’t implemented. The situation is more stable now, but it is still quite difficult for the city.

Did you receive any assistance from western partners, such as the European Union, to deal with the crisis?

Yes, assistance was provided mostly on the national level. But as we were told in European chancelleries and from Washington, the assistance is for every Moldovan. Assistance was received especially for managing the energy crisis and covering a part of the cost of the living increases. I think it was substantial during this period. Of course, we as a city, had a lot of assistance from our sister cities, from regions all across the EU.

This October is quite an important month for Moldova. There will not only be a presidential election, but also a simultaneous referendum on the country’s future. I am curious about your opinion on this idea to combine the referendum on Moldova’s EU path with the election, and what do you expect the outcome to be?

The only thing that I can say is that it was a little bit risky to make such a move. If the referendum fails, then it will be a big problem for Moldova. We, as a part of the National Alternative Movement (a new centrist and pro-EU political party led by Ion Ceban – editor’s note), will campaign for and ask people to vote for EU integration. We will start as it is legally permitted, so the registration process for the referendum in September and the campaign from September 20th, for one month. Even if it is not going to be an easy process, I do hope the result will be “pro” [EU integration], but everybody will have to work for this result. And what’s important is that nobody tries to monopolize this, but to work together to obtain the necessary result as a final issue for the referendum. As for the presidential election, our party will not participate and we will not have our candidate.

If I may ask a bit more about that, because you previously were considered to be a candidate, maybe even a competitive candidate, but you decided not to run, as you mentioned. Can you explain a little bit why this is the case?

I feel that in the current context, first of all, it is about working and engaging with the citizens of Chișinău. We had municipal elections in the autumn last year and I promised then that I will be together with the citizens and helping them solve their problems. And I have said that even before the elections that I am not interested in participating in the presidential election, and I have my commitment to the people of Chișinău. The second reason is that we truly think that the most important elections are in the next year, which are the parliamentary elections. So we are preparing for that election to have a good result.

So you plan to focus primarily on the parliamentary elections?

Moldova is a parliamentary country and it is important that the main decisions are being made in the parliament; of course that is not to diminish the role of the president.

On the EU integration side, maybe you could speak about some of the challenges that, in your opinion, Moldova faces in terms of EU integration and what the EU can do to help with some of these challenges?

I think the EU is doing quite a lot even today. So at least this dynamic will be maintained. We face many challenges, from quality of life issues to infrastructure projects, social projects and many other areas which are important for ordinary people. Of course, when we speak about standards, the key is to improve overall governance in the country. This means focusing on talented and professional people who are able to make things better and faster. The EU can also help with that.

Another challenge that Moldova faces is a high level of emigration from the country. Do you see that if things can improve there is a possibility that Moldovans will start coming back?

This is connected to what I said before, it is about the quality of governance. If you improve the quality of life at home, increase standards and offer programmes, people will see that development and be encouraged to come back and become involved in different spheres, especially business. As you improve the quality of living and making business easier, the chances for returning back will certainly increase. Right now the dynamic is still very low and we need to work on that. Of course the pandemic, the energy crisis and the war also play a role here.

As mayor of Moldova’s capital city, I would like to ask you about the importance of international cooperation between cities. For example, you’re in Warsaw meeting with the city administration and you’ll be going to Lublin to discuss investments. How do these relations help with your city’s development?

I will give one small example. With Lublin we are a partner on one big European project which has more than three million euros of financing. It is quite ambitious and we consider that quite challenging – since it is just one of many such projects we are participating in Poland. But it is really important for us and it can help drive our internal agenda better and faster. Through these types of projects, we have access to EU funds which help us undertake new policies and adopt different approaches to similar challenges faced by these cities in the past – so there is no need to reinvent the wheel. There are a lot of challenges that have already been solved and I would say from our experience that our partners are really happy to share them with us.

Ion Ceban is a Moldovan politician and the current mayor of Chișinău. He is the leader of the relatively new party – National Alternative Movement.

Adam Reichardt is the editor in chief of New Eastern Europe and co-host of the Talk Eastern Europe podcast.