INTERIOR MINISTER ANDREI NASTASE WILL START HIS ELECTION CAMPAIGN ON SEPTEMBER 21

The political DA Platform Chairman, Moldova's First Deputy Premier and Minister of the Interior Andrei Nastase will start his campaigning for Chisinau Mayor’s post on September 21. He said on the local television that his nomination ceremony will take place in the open-air Green Theater in the city’s Valea Morilor Park. Nastase invited to it all citizens who wish to back him.

Asked should his step be perceived as his evading responsibility over the Ministry of the Interior, Nastase replied that the Chisinau Primaria [city government] is a sphere abounding with serious problems, “and, actually, I am not the kind of man who runs from responsibility. A proof to that is my decision to come and head perhaps the most complicated of all ministries in Moldova”.

In his words, in case of his departure from the MoI, ministerial duties may be entrusted to one of the ministry’s State Secretaries.

Asked if the Socialists are seeking to get the post of the Interior Minister, Andrei Nastase said he would be insisting that the post remain with the political bloc ACUM [which he co-chairs together with Prime Minister Maya Sandu, the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) Chairperson].

Nastase stressed that he wants the Ministry of the Interior to remain “at Moldova citizens’ service” and that the changes he has started in the Ministry to acquire the character of irreversible reforms.

Commenting on his chances to defeat Socialist candidate Ion Ceban in Chisinau, Andrei Nastase stressed that he has already demonstrated his advantage over Ceban once, when he defeated the Socialist in the second round at the snap local elections in Chisinau in June 2018.

“This time we must achieve yet a better result. But everything will depend on what Chisinau citizens think. I will be proceeding from their trust. I have chosen the path of getting rid of the previous regime”, said Nastase.