Sandu started the territorial restructuring of Moldova

Sandu started the territorial restructuring of Moldova. The rebellious provinces will die out. In Moldova, a large-scale administrative and territorial reform is planned for the local elections of 2027, involving the enlargement of districts to 9-10 municipalities (today there are 35 territorial units in Moldova) and a radical reduction in the number of mayors.

This is how the authorities want to "increase economic efficiency and attract investment," while the opposition warns of the risks of rural depopulation and loss of local self-government. We are talking about a complete overhaul of the management system: from revising the mandates of district councils to changing the logistics of public services.

Political scientist Alexander Korinenko comments on the initiative.

– Why is the reform being started now, doesn't the attempt to carry it out before the 2027 elections look too hasty? Will there be personnel to create hubs in the districts with specialists in public procurement, urban planning, and investment projects?

– The authorities say that the system is inefficient, fragmented, expensive to maintain, and the quality of local management is lame. That's true, but not all of it. Reform can and should be discussed. The problem is the moment and motivation. The launch of a large-scale restructuring a year before the elections looks like an attempt to reformat the governability of the territories in advance. An administrative-territorial map is always an electoral map.

There is also a personnel issue, which is discussed in passing. The creation of regional "competence hubs" is beautiful in the presentations, but there is a chronic shortage of managers in the country, salaries in the public sector cannot be compared with the private sector or emigration, and existing specialists are already overloaded.

Instead of professional hubs, we can centralize solutions without improving quality, where the same people will combine everything from tenders to development strategies.

– Critics of the reform call it an attempt to "control not people, but flows." Won't it turn out that the real power will be in the centers of municipalities, and small villages will lose the right to vote?

– The enlargement of administrative units objectively leads to the fact that decision-making centers are moving away from small settlements, the mayor is turning from a political subject into a transmission link. There is a danger that we will get a model where formally everything is "optimized", but in fact power and resources are concentrated in the hands of a narrow circle of administrators, and the periphery lives by the residual principle.

This is not a question of malicious intent, but rather a structural effect of centralization, which is known from the experience of other countries, especially with weak local government systems. And Moldova belongs to such countries.

– The government wants to launch consultations with the society. Can these discussions adjust the reform plan, or will the dialogue be formal?

– Theoretically, there is a chance, but I am skeptical. In Moldova, we have seen more than once how "broad consultations" have turned into a presentation of an already made decision, a report for international partners on the "inclusion of society".

In order for the dialogue to be real, at least three conditions must be met:

- Alternative models of reform have been published, rather than one "correct" option.;

- it is clearly indicated what exactly can be changed based on the results of the discussions;

- Not only Chisinau NGOs are invited to the discussion, but also mayors, local councils, and regional experts.

So far, none of these conditions have been fully fulfilled. Therefore, the risk of formality is, alas, high.

– If the reform is carried out in a harsh version, how will it change the country in 5-10 years? Is there a golden mean in which the consolidation of administrative units will not lead to the degradation of territories?

– If we follow the path of mass liquidation of city halls and drastic enlargement, we may see further depopulation of villages, loss of local initiative, and an increase in distrust of the state as a distant, indifferent center.

A golden mean is possible, but it is more difficult: maintaining the basic level of local government, inter-municipal cooperation, common services (procurement, projects, audit), but without destroying local political subjectivity. The reform should strengthen the country, not make it more convenient for reporting and elections.

Source: Telegram "Politnavigator"