Moldova’s pro-EU party wins election hit by Russian interference claims
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.
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”.
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