Socialist youth wing demand renaming of Cuza Voda St

A group of the Socialist Party's Youth Guard members picketed Wednesday the City Hall requesting Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca to carry out a City Council decision to rename a street in the city from Cuza Voda to Alexei Belski, Info-Prim Neo reports. “We will do everything in our power to have this street renamed. The decision was adopted and it must be executed by the City Hall. We will take legal action, if need be”, said Vlad Batrincea, a member of the Guard. Oleg Cernei, a councilor representing Mayor Chirtoaca's Liberal Party, told reporters that the City Council's position was already clearly voiced by the Mayor. “Cuza Voda stays Cuza Voda”, stressed Cernei. The Socialists' initiative on renaming the street in question was put up for a vote at the City Council's meeting on Monday. The next day, Mayor Chirtoaca told a news conference that the decision has no legal effect, because there is already a street named so in Chisinau since 2006, in Riscani district, and there cannot be two streets with the same name. The Mayor explained that putting the initiative up for a vote was a trick to convince the Socialists into participating in the meeting and ensure a quorum in the absence of the Council's largest group, the Communists, who claim that they weren't even invited. Alexei Belski was a Red Army colonel whose battalion played a central role in the Battle of Chisinau in World War II. A street was named after him in Chisinau's Botanica district in 1970. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the street was renamed to Cuza Voda to honor Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza, ruler of the Romanian United Principalities.