CHISINAU, Moldova – Moldovans will vote this week in tense parliamentary elections which its president has called the “most consequential” in the small country’s history, as it teeters between its powerful neighbor Russia and the West.
Wedged between Ukraine — currently fighting off a Russian invasion — and European Union member Romania, Moldova has long been divided over closer ties with Brussels or maintaining Soviet-era relations with Moscow.
Most polls so far show President Maia Sandu’s pro-EU party, in power since 2021, in the lead in the September 28 vote — but she accuses the Kremlin of spending hundreds of millions of euros in “dirty money” to interfere in the campaign.
Analysts warn the race is far from certain.
There are growing frustrations among the population of 2.4 million over economic hardship and unfulfilled promises of reform in one of the poorest countries in Europe, as well as skepticism over Sandu’s push to gain EU membership, which she launched after Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. AFP
“To me it seems the European Union has been too present over here. So many visits, it seems like too much involvement to me,” Elena Popusoi, a voter in her 50s, told AFP.
She added she preferred “friendship with Russia.”
A loss for Sandu’s ruling Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) could throw up hurdles in the push towards EU integration.
“The game will be played until the very last moment,” said analyst Valeriu Pasha from the think tank WatchDog.md, based in the capital Chisinau.
Ahead of the ballot, PAS leaders asked voters to overcome their “grievances and doubts” to avoid the risk of young men becoming “cannon fodder in (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s bloody, criminal wars.” AFP
