Electoral contestants

Centrist Union of Moldova

Chairman: Mihai Petrache Electoral slogans: For a competent, efficient and responsible local power Vote the Centrist Union of Moldova! Vote the team of the Centrist Union of Moldova!

Candidate for the position of General Mayor of Chisinau Municipality:
Mihai Petrache

Electoral programme (abridged)

The Centrist Union of Moldova (CUM) was established out of an objective need as a political party which tries to bring the political, economic and social life back to normal through its programme, attitudes, positions and constructive initiatives. We aim at political stability, sustainable economic development, political and territorial integrity, and the consolidation of the international image and credibility of Moldova.

Our programme principles and 5tasksm as well as our concrete activities, in our view, adequately reflect the national interests of the Republic of Moldova are realistic and comprehensible and will enjoy the support of the citizens.

The CUM is a political party of social democratic orientation, guided by centrism, political rationalism as a conception, as a way of approaching and tackling the socio-economic problems, as an imperative factor of maintaining the political equilibrium in the country by fighting any form of extremism, right or left.

The CUM is the party that pleads for a competent, efficient and responsible government, for a constructive, exigent and critical opposition, and against political egotism.

The CUM assumes the role of political advocate, public defender of the people, whose direct participation in government we ensure through their participation in elections, referendums and other legal means, as well as through the permanent democratic control over the state power.

We are a party that has no reason to hide from the people, we plead for a public, honest and responsible dialogue, and we have firm intentions to bring about a democratic and efficient alternative to the current state government.

The CUM believes that the local and parliamentary elections are the main field of political competence of parties, the most democratic form of checking their programmes and teams, as well as the only legal way of distributing the local and central powers.

I. Our values

All the people, regardless of their nationality, social order, political affiliation, confession or sex have the right to achieve material wealth and spiritual development in conditions of freedom and dignity, economic stability and equal opportunities. A sustainable social peace, in our view, may be instated only when the principles of social equity are strictly observed.

We are confident that the freedom of expression and the right to free association are indispensable conditions for progress, and poverty is a danger for social wealth. With no hopes for a better future, the people can either turn to social protests or even revolution. The social inequity may cause such revolts, which is a threat to social peace.

The individual is our supreme value. Our major objectives are the respect for human dignity, the person's right to free development, fighting inequality and suffering. We highly appreciate the importance of socially useful work, truth, modesty and good will.

II. Equal opportunities for all

In Moldova we have witnessed a state bureaucratic capitalism being built, which limits private initiative, gives a damn about developing local production, reproduced corruption practices and generates Mafia-like relations in the society. This results in a significant part of the population getting very rich and poverty at mass scale.

We build on the need to create equal conditions for all those who start an independent life. Although the equality of chances in circumstances of market economy is conditioned by economic and cultural factors alike, we believe that this barrier may be lifted through the intervention of the state by re-distributing a share of national revenues for the development of social services.

IV. Achieving economic growth

We plead for a market economy with an advanced system of social protection and a developed production potential combined with the protection of the environment. The basic objective of the economic policy of the state should be to ensure a stable economic growth and increase the competitiveness of our economy. The necessary need to be done for that purpose:

• Stability and efficiency of legislation, its compatibility with the international economic and financial regulations;
• Stimulating the private initiative and ensuring loyal competition, abolishing the state monopoly, be it branch or corporate, economically irrational and wasteful;
• Encouraging local and foreign technological investments, protecting the interests of local producers domestically and internationally through a rational application of international trade tools;
• Amnesty and legalisation of shadow capitals of all forms (money in national and foreign currency, bonds, securities, assets etc.) through credible, stimulating and irrevocable legislative mechanisms and guarantees;
• Diminishing the negative influence of the state and administrative and financial controls system on economic activity;
• Rational regulation of the imports policy considering the limitation of imports of goods and services that are not strictly necessary;
• Reducing state expenditure and the state bureaucratic apparatus of the central and local authorities.

VII. Consolidation of the local public administration

The local public administration in Moldova is in a permanent transition from districts to counties and then back to districts again, from local autonomy to direct centralised subordination to the state power etc.

Laws are being passed in bunches, they are often changed, sometimes they are confusing and contradictory and provide for lots of stamps and formal approvals which have made the public officers the masters of the citizens. The local administration lacks often the competence and transparency, not always one knows exactly where the budget money goes.

There is no sufficient economic and social cohesion, and the obvious gap between regions is a threat to national unity. There are too large gaps between villages and towns. In villages there is no modern civilisation or jobs, the most affected being the young who do not link their future to the future of this country and leave abroad.

To overcome the political, economic, social and spiritual crisis, the following needs to be done:

• To reform and improve the state power, achieve harmonious relations between the regions and the centre;
• To optimise the administrative-territorial organisation of the country in the interests of the residents and local communities;
• To establish such administrative borders of the local administration subjects which would guarantee to the local power bodies a real economic basis for the solution of problems and fulfilment of objectives of local importance;
• Adjusting the local public administration to European standards, guaranteeing administrative, financial, functional and functional stability and inviolability of the local power.

The state and local powers must be subject to the control of citizens and be at their service, ensuring the community, family, and every citizen the chance to live in a state with an advanced economy, and a high living standard earned through honest work and investments.

For this:

• We will achieve a good governance through coherent and transparent public policies, based on decentralisation and social dialogue;
• We will ensure the enhancement of competence, transparency and efficiency in spending public money;
• We will promote a policy of reduction of the development gaps between villages and towns and the various regions, in particular, on the basis of principles of regional and local development;
• We will support the development of agriculture, infrastructures and non-agricultural activities in villages;
• We will plead for the development and implementation of social programmes, at national and local levels, to be supported from special funds and intended to provide material and moral support to teachers, doctors, cultural and art workers, pensioners, invalids, families with many children, lonely elderly people and other socially vulnerable people, as well as to solve issues related to the homeless, beggars, the rehabilitation of alcohol and drug addicts.

We are a party which values above all competence, professionalism, the ability and will of the individual to do good for the common good and under his/her own responsibility. These very qualities we appreciate most of all and it is these very qualities that are possessed by our candidates for mayors and councillors that we have put up for these local elections.