Status: 11.07.2021 10:45 p.m.
In the parliamentary elections in Moldova, a clear victory for the pro-European PAS party led by President Sandu is becoming apparent. Your opponent Dodon had previously prevented a government from being formed for months.
The citizens of the ex-Soviet Republic of Moldova (Moldova) elected a new parliament in a landmark vote – and placed their trust in the incumbent President Maia Sandu. Your pro-European center-right party PAS comes, according to partial results, to more than 44 percent of the vote. The alliance of socialists and communists led by the Kremlin-supported ex-president Igor Dodon won almost 33 percent of the vote.
The distribution of the 101 seats is largely a question of whether Moldova can take the course towards the EU that Sandu is striving for. The crisis-ridden country that borders the EU state Romania has been torn between Russia and Europe since it declared independence 30 years ago.
Maia Sandu’s predecessor in office Igor Dodon warns against turning the country away from Russia. It is particularly popular with the rural population.
Image: EPA
Russia continues to have great influence
Sandu had called the early vote after the pro-Russian forces around Dodon had prevented the formation of a new government for months. So far, Dodon’s supporters have a majority in parliament in Chisinau.
Russia continues to have great influence in the small country that also borders Ukraine – especially in the Transnistria region, which breaks away from Moldova and where the Russian military has been stationed since the early 1990s. Almost 260,000 people from the separatist area were also entitled to vote in the election on Sunday. Most recently, Moscow lamented “unprecedented interference” by the US and EU in Moldova’s internal affairs.