Moldova's pro-EU party wins vote mired in claims of Russian interference

BBC ^ | 09/29/25 | Sarah Rainsford, Paul Kirby

[SeekAndFind]

The pro-European party of Moldovan President Maia Sandu has claimed victory and a new majority in parliament in Sunday's elections seen as critical for her country's future path to the EU.

Sandu had warned of "massive Russian interference" after voting, saying the future of Moldova, flanked by Ukraine and Romania, was at stake.

Igor Grosu, the leader of Sandu's Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) which secured about 50% of the vote, said Russia had thrown "everything it had" at the election.

Opposition leader Igor Dodon had claimed victory even before results came in and called for protests outside parliament in the capital Chisinau on Monday.

However, the win by PAS is emphatic: Monday's protest was tiny and mostly attended by pensioners. And there is no sense at this point that they have any momentum.

With 99.9% of the 1.6 million votes counted, PAS had 50.17% of the vote - far ahead of the pro-Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc on 24.18%, Moldova's central electoral commission said.

Turnout was 52%, higher than in recent years.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the result. "You made your choice clear: Europe. Democracy. Freedom," she wrote on X on Monday.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk praised Sandu, saying she had "saved democracy" and "stopped Russia in its attempts to take control over the whole region. A good lesson for us all".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on social media: "These elections showed that Russia's destabilising activity loses, while Moldova in Europe wins."

In Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "From what we see and know, we can conclude that hundreds of thousands of Moldovans were deprived of the opportunity to vote in Russia because there were only two polling stations open to them, which was of course insufficient."

[SeekAndFind]

Recent Moldovan votes have been far closer, but soon after polls closed it became clear that Sandu's party was on course for another majority in the 101-seat parliament.

Four years ago, the president's party won 52.8% of the vote, and based on the latest results it is now set to clinch 55 seats.

To form a government it will not need to rely on support from other parties, such as the Alternativa bloc or the populist Our Party.

Moldova also has a pro-Russian breakaway enclave called Transnistria along its border with Ukraine, complete with a Russian military presence.

Residents in this sliver of land have Moldovan passports. Many are strongly pro-Moscow and Socialist party leader Igor Dodon said there had been "all sorts of harassment, stopping them from voting".

[MinorityRepublican]

🇲🇩 About a year ago, while I was stuck in Paris, the French intelligence services reached out to me through an intermediary, asking me to help the Moldovan government censor certain Telegram channels ahead of the presidential elections in Moldova.

After reviewing the channels flagged by French (and Moldovan) authorities, we identified a few that clearly violated our rules and removed them. The intermediary then informed me that, in exchange for this cooperation, French intelligence would “say good things” about me to the judge who had ordered my arrest in August last year.

This was unacceptable on several levels. If the agency did in fact approach the judge — it constituted an attempt to interfere in the judicial process. If it did not, and merely claimed to have done so, then it was exploiting my legal situation in France to influence political developments in Eastern Europe — a pattern we have also observed in Romania 🇷🇴

Shortly thereafter, the Telegram team received a second list of so-called “problematic” Moldovan channels. Unlike the first, nearly all of these channels were legitimate and fully compliant with our rules. Their only commonality was that they voiced political positions disliked by the French and Moldovan governments.

We refused to act on this request.

Telegram is committed to freedom of speech and will not remove content for political reasons. I will continue to expose every attempt to pressure Telegram into censoring our platform. Stay tuned. 🤝— Pavel Durov (@durov) September 28, 2025

[kiryandil]

EU and globalist interference.

[kiryandil]

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on social media: "These elections showed that Russia's destabilising activity loses, while Moldova in Europe wins."

What a lying piece of authoritarian dictatorial cr@p.

[rfp1234]

Sounds like a repeat of the 2013-14 Ukraine globalist coup.

[unclebankster]

EU and globalist interference.

*************************

The reasons we keep our pro European position, is because we have a huge europhile faction in the USA that is hooked on “the money & weapons trade.”

A modern foreign policy for America in our current “financial straight jacket” would prioritize these regions in order of importance:

1) The Western Hemisphere.(This is are backyard, don’t mess around in it.)
2) Asia ( Trade from Asian producers is the biggest issue on this one.)
3) The Middle East ( It’s a hotbed of problems but Oil and Israel can’t be abandoned.)
4) Europe (Their importance dimished substantially after the cold war ended, but our policies either stayed the same or were expanded by adding pygmy nations under the NATO umbrella.)

[nickcarraway]

Okay, Peeper.

[nickcarraway]

Why are we obligated to support a country that has supported the Democrats and interfered in every single election since the 1930s?

[kiryandil]

Lookit the Zelyanista, wishing you were a piano keyboard in Kiev... 😉😂😂

[kiryandil]

By contributing at least $30/month (or $360/year) to Free Republic you can be a member of the Free Republic Dollar-A-Day club.

"You can contribute any combination of monthly and/or one-time contributions to reach this goal."

Or you can be like marcus, and not contribute ANYTHING but spam, rooterspimpink and blogpimping to Free Republic!

[Mark was here]

What a lying piece of authoritarian dictatorial cr@p.

Don't be so glum over Putin's loss. It should brighten your day that your Putin was able to kill lots of people in Ukraine yesterday, that should put a smile on your face.

[Mark was here]

What a lying piece of authoritarian dictatorial cr@p.

Don't be so glum over Putin's loss. It should brighten your day that your Putin was able to kill lots of people in Ukraine yesterday, that should put a smile on your face.

[kiryandil]

To the Last Ukrainian, eh?

[unclebankster]

Why are we obligated to support a country that has supported the Democrats and interfered in every single election since the 1930s?

************************

I don’t have an answer for your question. It seems like we have pyromaniacs running our foreign policy.

Also, I’m a member of a much maligned and mocked group called isolationists by warfare interventionists. The warfare interventionists hide their real priorities, which are empire & money with pleasant language about an international community & democracy.

I’ll be opposing their stupid policies for the rest of my life.( Hopefully, around 30-40 more years.)

[kiryandil]

BTW, thank you for your donations to the Freep-A-Thons in Q4 of 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Pity you weren’t on the board in 2025...

[kiryandil]

BTW, thank you for your donations to the Freep-A-Thons in Q4 of 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Pity you weren’t on the board in 2025...

[Right_Wing_Madman]

Sandu had warned of "massive Russian interference"

Zeepers accuse me of the same thing.

[tlozo]

with a military presence

Russians promised to withdraw their troops from Moldova in 1994, in 1999 and in 2002. Now they are talking about sending an additional 10,000 troops to Moldova. They could be used to attack Ukraine's Odesa.

[nickcarraway]

I have never said anything pro-Zelensky. Kindly demonstrate where I have. I am just America First. You Peepers say the U.S. should be a vassal state for Putin and Soros.

Since Putin told you to vote for Biden and Harris, we know who you voted for.