Pro-Western Forces Win Moldova Election

Moldova’s president Maia Sandu’s party won the Eastern European country’s parliamentary election on Sunday.

The president’s party gained enough parliamentary seats to ensure the country’s pro-Russian opposition cannot obstruct the broad reformist agenda that won her the presidency in November last year, Euronews reports.

Sandu said that she hoped the result would mark “the end of the reign of thieves in Moldova”, as her party looked to have won more than 50% of the votes. Sandu’s Action and Solidarity Party (PAS) might reach an absolute majority in parliament.

Dodon’s Socialist Party, meanwhile, appears to have slumped to just 27%.

Sandu has promised to reverse Dodon’s move away from Europe and towards Russia and bring her country back into the European fold, prioritising better relations with both Brussels and with Romania, with which Moldova shares a border, a cultural and political history, and a language. “The challenges are great, people need results” and “must feel the benefits of a clean parliament” and “an honest and competent government”, said Sandu.

Maia Sandu beat Moscow-backed incumbent and arch-rival Igor Dodon in a presidential election on November 3 with a pro-European message that appealed to the almost two-thirds of Moldovan citizens living abroad, mostly in the European Union.