Moldova’s pro-European party won a victory after a nail-biting election plagued by Russian interference, preliminary results on Monday showed, allowing it to retain its majority in Parliament after what many observers have called the most important campaign in the nation’s recent history.
The win, which still needs to be made official by the nation’s election commission, could further Moldova’s bid to enter the European Union. That prospect would have been under threat had parties aligned with Russia made serious gains in the race.
The election had taken on outsize global importance, considering that Moldova is a tiny nation of 2.4 million. Wedged between Romania and Ukraine, it is strategically important as the war in Ukraine rages on. The vote had also become a referendum on Europe versus Russia, with Moldovans choosing which vision of their future to embrace.
The expected victory for the pro-E.U. party of President Maia Sandu, the Party of Action and Solidarity, was a signal that domestic problems, including expensive gas and widespread poverty, have not derailed its ambitions.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Union’s executive arm, celebrated in a post on social media.
“Our door is open,” she wrote. “And we will stand with you every step of the way.”
But in a sign of the ongoing tensions, several hundred people gathered in front of the Parliament in Chisinau on Monday to protest and counterprotest. People chanted “Moldova” and waved national flags as pro-Russian officials spoke before the crowd. Police had warned in advance that they were worried about paid protesters demonstrating against the results.
Essentially all of the vote had been counted in Moldova as of Monday morning, the government’s election tracker showed. Slightly more than 50 percent of the vote had gone to the party of Ms. Sandu. That was a solid lead over the next highest party — the pro-Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc, which came in with 24 percent of the vote.
Because of the way the Moldovan system works, the result was expected to secure the pro-European party more than half of the 101 seats in Moldova’s parliament.
The election came at a critical moment in the nation’s geopolitics. Moldova is a former Soviet republic with deep historical ties to Russia, but it has in recent years drawn closer to the European Union.
In 2020, Ms. Sandu was elected president.
Then, after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, drawing closer to Europe seemed to many Moldovans to be the best avenue for avoiding future domination by Moscow. The country applied to join the European Union, and last October, a referendum enshrined support for joining the bloc into the Moldovan Constitution.
But voters approved that measure only narrowly, 50.4 percent to 49.5 percent. The razor-thin victory suggested that Ms. Sandu’s party ran a real risk of losing ground this election.
Pro-Russian parties focused on issues of security and sovereignty. They argued that Ms. Sandu’s party would risk pulling Moldova into conflict with Russia, that moving closer to the European Union would undermine Moldova’s identity, and that the ruling party was at odds with traditional family values.
They also focused on high prices, particularly of gas.
Such messages landed with some voters.
Palina Velimboskaia, a 62-year-old accountant, said she was worried that the European Union would provoke war and drag Moldova into it. Standing outside a polling place in a residential part of the capital, Chisinau, she called Ms. Sandu’s party a “dictatorship.”
Her comments echoed the messaging in much of the advertising by the pro-Russian parties.
Russia tried to sway the results by pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into buying off voters and staging an extensive disinformation effort, Ms. Sandu’s party said. YouTube videos falsely suggested that Ms. Sandu was involved in made-up scandals (notably, an illegal celebrity sperm purchase). False reports of vote-rigging circulated.
On Sunday, as voters headed to polls, the Moldovan government reported cyberattacks on electoral systems and hoax bomb threats at expatriate voting sites in cities including Rome; Brussels; Bucharest, Romania; and Asheville, N.C. The Moldovan diaspora in Western countries is an important source of support for pro-European politicians.
The police said they had detained three people who they suspected of planning to sow chaos at a protest after the vote, and who had “pyrotechnics and inflammables” in their car.
Ms. Sandu’s party emphasized throughout that campaign that Russia was being a disruptive force in Moldova. And it argued that pulling closer to Russia would leave Moldova exposed at a treacherous moment.
“Moldova is in danger,” Ms. Sandu said outside a polling station in Chisinau on Sunday, ringed by a crowd of journalists. “Russia can do a lot of harm. It wants to control us in order to use us against other states.”
Moldova is already benefiting from financial support from the European Union thanks to its status as a candidate country. And its E.U. connections have become more important as the United States steps back from the region, with the Trump administration slashing support for foreign aid.
But the country continues to face serious challenges, including tepid economic growth. Roughly one in three people lives in poverty. And while E.U. membership could offer longer-term economic benefits, joining the bloc requires taking steps — including compliance with product standards and trade rules — that can be challenging.
Several voters noted that the political discourse in Moldova has become more divisive.
“It’s more rough now, in favor of Russia,” Angelina Zubac, 61, a former accountant, said as she walked into a voting station on Sunday, calling the election critical.
She worried that if pro-Russian forces were to gain ground and the E.U. bid were to fail, “Moldova will stagnate and go back to 40 years ago.”
Valentina Hamuraru, a 68-year-old retiree, echoed similar concerns as she went to cast her own vote.
“My biggest worry is that we lose what we have gained so far: freedom,” she said.
Ruxanda Spatari contributed reporting from Chisinau.
Jeanna Smialek is the Brussels bureau chief for The Times.
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