In winning parliamentary elections, Moldova’s incumbent party has kept the country on track to join the European Union, overcoming Russia’s efforts to sow dissension and pull the Moldovans away from Brussels and toward Moscow.
Yet the outcome of Sunday’s vote and reactions to it showed just how wide the gap has become between pro-European and pro-Russian Moldovans. As the war in Ukraine wears on, Russia militarizes and its relations with the West grow more hostile, Moldova and other former Soviet-bloc states caught between them are trying to find a stable footing.
The Moldovan government’s supporters celebrated their victory as a defeat of Kremlin interference, following a campaign plagued by disinformation from Russia and allegations that it bought off voters. Moldova reported cyberattacks on electoral systems and hoax bomb threats at voting sites for expatriates, a key bloc of support for pro-European politicians.
“You have won battle after battle against enemies of our country,” Igor Grosu, the speaker of the Parliament, said on Monday.
“The European path is our way forward,” President Maia Sandu said.
Their Party of Action and Solidarity captured 55 of the 101 seats in Moldova’s Parliament, based on preliminary results — an absolute majority, though a smaller one than it won in the last parliamentary election, in 2021.
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