Moldova’s pro-Western governing party has decisively won a parliamentary election plagued by claims of Russian interference and was widely seen as a definitive choice between staying in Europe’s orbit or lurching into Moscow’s.
With nearly all polling station reports counted on Monday, electoral data showed the pro-European Union Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) had 50.2 percent of the vote, while the pro-Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc had 24.2 percent, according to The Associated Press news agency. The Russia-friendly Alternativa Bloc came third, followed by the populist Our Party.
The pivotal ballot in the nation’s future on Sunday pitted the governing pro-European PAS against several Russia-friendly opponents.
President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, welcomed the success of the pro-EU party.
“Moldova, you’ve done it again. No attempt to sow fear or division could break your resolve. You made your choice clear: Europe. Democracy. Freedom. Our door is open. And we will stand with you every step of the way. The future is yours,” von der Leyen wrote on X.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also welcomed the result and said Russia had “failed to destabilise Moldova”.
“Even after spending huge, huge resources to undermine it and to corrupt whoever they could,” Zelenskyy added.
Leading up to the vote, Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean warned of Russian interference, saying Moscow is spending “hundreds of millions” of euros as part of an alleged “hybrid war” to try to seize power, which he described as “the final battle for our country’s future”.
Russia had denied Moldova’s claims that it was waging a disinformation campaign and looking to buy votes and stir unrest.
Geographically, Moldova is landlocked between Ukraine and EU member Romania.
The country has, in recent years, moved westwards in attaining candidate status to the EU in 2022, just after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Cristian Cantir, a Moldovan associate professor of international relations at Oakland University, told AP that PAS’s victory is “a clear win for pro-European forces in Moldova, which will be able to ensure continuity in the next few years in the pursuit of their ultimate goal of EU integration”.
“A PAS majority saves the party from having to form a coalition that would have most likely been unstable and would have slowed down the pace of reforms to join the EU,” he said, adding, “Moldova will continue to be in a difficult geopolitical environment characterised by Russia’s attempts to pull it back into its sphere of influence.”
The election day was marked by a string of incidents, ranging from bomb threats at multiple polling stations abroad to cyberattacks on electoral and government infrastructure, voters photographing their ballots, and some being illegally transported to polling stations. Three people were also arrested, suspected of plotting to cause unrest after the vote.
On Friday, President Maia Sandu called the vote the country’s “most consequential election”. “Its outcome will decide whether we consolidate our democracy and join the EU, or whether Russia drags us back into a grey zone, making us a regional risk,” Sandu wrote on X.
Recean, in the meantime, had also stressed the threat from Russia: “I call on every Moldovan at home and across Europe: We cannot change what Russia does, but we can change what we do as a people,” he said. “Turn worry into mobilisation and thoughtful action … Help stop their schemes.”
