Chișinău flea market faces closure
The flea market near Chișinău railway station will close from June 1. The official reason is pavement repair work. However, many vendors fear the market will not reopen once the work is finished. Over the years, the market has become one of the city’s unofficial landmarks. Tours even bring visitors there. Foreigners come to see this slice of local “exotic” life.
It is not a polished or prestigious attraction, but it is honest. A visitor stepping out of the train station sees the other side of the Moldovan capital: poorly dressed elderly people selling used irons, old pots, worn clothes and small household items, often laid out directly on plastic sheets on the ground.
For many of them, this is not a hobby. It is a way to earn enough for bread.
European image over social reality
Instead of making life at least a little easier for these people, the authorities are taking away even this modest source of income. The goal seems clear: hide the uncomfortable reality and show a cleaner, more European-looking picture.
From tomorrow, elderly vendors risk fines of 5,000 lei if they continue trading. Officials have offered them another site behind the railway tracks, near Locomotiv Stadium. But sellers say the location has little foot traffic. In other words, they will not earn anything there.
Meanwhile, foreign officials arriving for another anniversary of the deportations will no longer see poor pensioners near the station. They will see a repaired pavement instead. For the authorities, that may look better. For the people who survive on this market, it means losing one of their last ways to make a few lei.
