Bogdan Tudorache

The environmental organizations challenge the way in which the environmental investments in the Capital were carried out. The idea of the mayor of the Capital to organize a referendum for the introduction of the Oxygen vignette is hallucinating, believes Irina Zamfirescu, representative of ActiveWatch and OPTAR, according to RFI.

“It is absolutely hallucinating how we had a whole discussion, a whole public debate, the mayor filming himself in the gardens of Bucharest, talking with the citizens, conducting public debates (…), holding a referendum for a measure … practically, it asks citizens of Bucharest: do you agree to pay for the fact that the Bucharest authorities have done nothing to reduce pollution in the last 30 years?”, said Zamfirescu, during an RFI broadcast.

She also criticized the way the public debate takes place, with the doors closed for certain members of the agora, as well as the budget of 500 million euros announced by the mayor’s office to streamline traffic and reduce pollution, a budget difficult to reach since the mayor’s office is in deficit deficit, needing regular corrections.

The Bucharest City Hall could organize a new referendum for the Oxygen Tax, through which polluting cars have to pay to ride inside the Capital.

City Hall mayor Gabriela Firea says she observed how “petitions and rallies against the Oxygen vignette” are organized in the public space. The mayor of the Capital says that, if appropriate, it will hold a referendum on this tax, according to Radio Europa FM. “We have seen petitions, actions, even meetings against the Oxygen vignette. No problem, we can also give up the program, if this is what the people of Bucharest want. (…) If you want, we can organize a referendum, but it is abnormal for us to hold a referendum for what the Europeans we follow suit have long decided, namely that the polluter pays,” said the Mayor of the Capital.