CHISINAU — Moldova’s pro-European ruling party won a resounding victory over its Russian-leaning rival in a key parliamentary election, results on Monday showed, in a major boost for the country’s bid to join the European Union and break away from Moscow’s orbit.
The surprisingly strong performance on Sunday by President Maia Sandu’s Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) against the Patriotic Bloc was a relief for the government and its EU partners, who accused Moscow of seeking to influence the vote.
“This is not just a party’s victory — it is Moldova’s victory. The European path is our way forward,” Sandu said on X.
With all votes counted, PAS won 50.2% versus 24.2% for the Patriotic Bloc, which had sought to steer Moldova — a small former Soviet republic that lies between Ukraine and EU member Romania — closer to Russia.
“The people of Moldova… chose democracy, reform, and a European future, in the face of pressure and interference from Russia,” Antonio Costa, president of the European Council which represents the EU’s 27 member states, said on X.
The leaders of France, Germany and Poland, in a joint statement, congratulated Moldova for “the peaceful conduct of the election, despite unprecedented interference by Russia, including with vote-buying schemes and disinformation”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the election result showed that Moscow had failed to “destabilise” Moldova.
However, the Kremlin — which denies the accusations of meddling — accused Moldovan authorities of preventing hundreds of thousands of its citizens who live in Russia from voting by providing only two polling stations for the large diaspora.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, writing later on the ministry’s website, said Moscow hoped Moldova would now take a balanced approach and not become an “anti-Russian appendage of NATO”.
“The outcome confirms a deep split in Moldovan society caused by the destructive policy of the country’s leaders,” she wrote. “As history shows, a truly strong and secure future lies in developing equal cooperation with all countries.”
In Moldova, first-time voter Ana-Maria Orsu, 18, said she had noticed that many young people like her had turned out to cast their ballot.
“I think we have a bright future ahead of us,” she said in the capital Chisinau on Monday.
PAS leaders had called Sunday’s election the most consequential since Moldova’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Sandu’s government said Russia had attempted to sway the vote through widespread disinformation and vote-buying.
Authorities launched hundreds of raids in recent weeks targeting illicit party funding and alleged Russian-backed networks they said had sought to stir unrest over the vote.