On September 6, at 12.00, a meeting with the citizens of the villages of Todirești and Grăseni is scheduled at the Todirești House of Culture regarding the amalgamation with the commune of Petrești. The announcement comes from a local Facebook group. Grăseni is a component village of the commune of Todirești.
The meeting comes ten days after, on August 25, the Petrești Local Council approved the voluntary amalgamation with Todirești — in an extraordinary session, with 10 votes in favour, no votes against and no abstentions. Decision nr. 05/2, published in the State Register of Local Acts, assigns Mayor Serghei Gorea the task of transmitting the consolidated dossier to the State Chancellery.
What changed in three months
On May 17, at a general assembly attended by approximately 300 citizens, the residents of Petrești voted unanimously against the amalgamation with Todirești. According to the statements of Mayor Gorea, as reported by Provincial.md (primary source: calm.md), the arguments were clear: “There is no connecting road between us, so we cannot merge. The people of Todirești don’t want us, and the population of Petrești doesn’t want it either.”
Ten days later, on May 27, the Petrești Local Council formally rejected the amalgamation proposal, with 10 votes in favour of rejection and 2 abstentions. Decision nr. 03/14 cited the population exceeding 3,000 inhabitants — the threshold below which regulatory amalgamation becomes possible under Law nr. 225/2023.
On August 25, the same proposal was approved unanimously, without abstentions. Between rejection and approval, 90 days had passed. No official statement, no public post and no intermediate decision in the register documents what changed.
Triunghi.md is requesting a statement from the municipalities of Petrești and Todirești.
Three initiation decisions, none repealed
For its part, the commune of Todirești adopted three amalgamation initiation decisions between May and August 2026, with three different groups of partners:
On May 15, decision nr. 4/1 initiated the amalgamation with Chirileni, Bușila and Negurenii Vechi (11 votes in favour). On June 5, decision nr. 5/1 targeted a group of five communes around Pîrlița (8 votes in favour, 2 against, 2 abstentions). On August 6, decision nr. 7/1 initiated the amalgamation with Petrești (10 votes in favour, 1 abstention).
None of the three decisions has been repealed — all are listed as “act in force” in the State Register of Local Acts. The first two partners have since formed their own groups without Todirești: Bușila-Chirileni-Negurenii Vechi and, respectively, the Pîrlița group with five communes.
As of July 31, according to the analysis published by Triunghi.md at the district level, Todirești was the only municipality below the 3,000-inhabitant threshold that remained outside any amalgamation group.
Numbers
According to the preliminary data of the National Bureau of Statistics as of January 1, 2026, the commune of Todirești had 2,782 inhabitants — below the 3,000 threshold provided by Law nr. 225/2023. The commune of Petrești had 3,127 inhabitants according to NBS, and 3,185 according to the 2024 census (the figure cited in the May rejection decision).
Petrești, being above the threshold, is not at risk of regulatory amalgamation. Todirești, below the threshold, could have been amalgamated by regulation if it had not completed the voluntary process — according to the written response of the Ungheni Territorial Office of the State Chancellery, published by Triunghi.md.
The combined population of the two communes would be approximately 5,900 inhabitants.
What the consultation meeting entails
According to the Citizen’s Guide, published by the State Chancellery, the voluntary amalgamation procedure involves several stages: initiation, formation of a working group, public consultations of at least 30 days, a final decision of the local council by a two-thirds majority, submission of the dossier to the State Chancellery, approval by law and, finally, elections.
The September 6 meeting falls within the public consultation stage. The State Register of Local Acts does not include, as of the publication date, an approval decision for the amalgamation adopted by the Todirești Local Council — however, a recent decision not yet published cannot be excluded.
According to the same guide, the municipality in the centre that does not become the seat of the new administrative-territorial unit does not disappear but becomes a Unified Service Delivery Centre (CUPS) — a formulation different from the “liquidation of the Municipality” used in the meeting announcement.
Mayors and councillors from all units involved remain in office until the local elections in November 2027.