Subscribe here: [ Ссылка ] A razor-thin majority of Moldovans voted in favor of eventually joining the European Union, preliminary results showed Monday, after President Maia Sandu said the referendum had been marred by “unprecedented” pro-Russian interference.
On Sunday, Moldova held a crucial twin vote: one to elect a new president and the other to determine whether the country would eventually choose E.U. membership.
For Sandu, a pro-E.U. candidate elected on anti-corruption promises, the vote was a culmination of her four-year-long presidency in this small former Soviet country situated between Romania and Ukraine that has been locked in a decades-long battle over its political direction, torn between Moscow and the West.
Yet the knife-edge result is far from a confident endorsement of her attempts to push the country sharply toward the West. After 99.41 percent of the 1.4 million votes were counted in the referendum, 50.39 percent voted in favor to 49.61 percent who voted against, according to the Central Electoral Commission.
The country’s aspiration to join the bloc will now be enshrined in the constitution, so it will be significantly harder to back away from this path should a more Russia-friendly leader come to power.
“The people of Moldova have spoken: our EU future will now be anchored in the constitution. We fought fairly in an unfair fight — and we won,” Sandu said on X. “But the fight isn’t over. We will keep pushing for peace, prosperity, and the freedom to build our own future.”
For the presidential election, Sandu won 42 percent of the votes, while her primary opponent, former prosecutor general Alexandr Stoianoglo, took 26 percent in a field of 11 candidates. They will face each other in a runoff Nov. 3.
The full-scale invasion of Ukraine cast a shadow over Moldova’s future, prompting many pro-E.U. politicians to fear their country might be next. Russia keeps a small contingent of troops in Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria.
In a tweet early Monday, Sandu said that “criminal groups, working with foreign forces,” had attempted to influence Moldovan elections using “tens of millions of euros, lies, and propaganda.”
“We have clear evidence that these criminal groups aimed to buy 300,000 votes — a fraud of unprecedented scale,” she added. “Their objective was to undermine a democratic process. Their intention is to spread fear and panic in the society.”
Moldovan authorities accused Moscow of stepping up its “hybrid war” campaign to derail Moldova’s E.U. path and sway the elections in Russia’s favor. The allegations include funding pro-Moscow opposition groups, spreading disinformation, interfering in local elections and backing a major vote-buying scheme.
One such scheme was orchestrated by fugitive Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor, who authorities say ran a major operation to buy votes by offering money to pensioners if they voted against the referendum.
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