Ion Ceban, Mayor of Chișinău and leader of the National Alternative Movement (MAN), commented on the governing program presented by Vasile Tofan, describing it as “147 pages of fiction instead of a government program.”
“‘A European Economy, an Efficient State’—or How Local Self-Government Is Being Undermined from Government Offices?” TRIBUNA reports.
“I have analyzed the Government’s so-called Program of Activity for 2026. Beyond the attractive slogans about European integration, the figures and what is hidden between the lines reveal a harsh reality: a complete administrative failure and a clear attempt to strangle Chișinău.
The new Government is delivering pages full of digital promises while sweeping under the rug a major economic collapse and the absence of clear targets for reducing poverty. How can you speak about a ‘dynamic European economy’ when, in the first quarter of 2026, GDP grew by a miserable 0.4%, while imports were almost three times higher than exports?
Although the document officially acknowledges that more than a quarter of the country’s population lives in poverty and deprivation, the central executive refuses to establish clear targets for reducing this scourge. Instead of offering concrete economic solutions to increase purchasing power, we are given nothing more than strategies on paper,” the politician said.
The mayor also argued that the program contains a direct attack on urban planning in the capital, noting that it explicitly provides for the “use of public land for construction projects around the Chișinău metropolitan area.”
“Translated into plain language: they want the central government to decide what, where, and how construction takes place in our suburbs without consulting the municipality, trampling on the principle of decentralization.
Parents and teachers should pay attention! Instead of building new schools to solve overcrowding in Chișinău, the Government is allocating no funding for new school buildings. Instead, it proposes merely ‘reconfiguring existing spaces’—in other words, cramming more children into the same classrooms.
When it comes to infrastructure, the level of inadequacy is absolute. The Government admits that 48% of the country’s national roads are in poor condition, yet its ‘grand plan’ is to repair only 100 kilometers per year. At that pace, it will take decades just to bring the roads up to an acceptable standard.
You cannot build an ‘efficient state’ through abusive decisions imposed from the center while ignoring vital economic indicators.
Chișinău will not accept becoming a guinea pig for failed administrative experiments. Citizens deserve respect, transparency, and real investment—not cosmetic strategies,” the MAN leader stated.







