Moldova’s president said she would vote for reunification with Romania. Russia-friendly politicians jumped on the ensuing controversy.

Moldova’s political news cycle this week was dominated by comments from President Maia Sandu about how she would vote in a hypothetical referendum on unification with Romania. Meduza explains the context behind Sandu’s comments, how Moldovan and Romanian politicians have responded, and whether her statement is likely to have concrete political consequences.

“If we have a referendum, I would vote for unification with Romania,” Moldovan President Maia Sandu said in a January 11 interview on the British podcast The Rest Is Politics. “Look what’s happening in the world. It is becoming increasingly difficult for a small country like Moldova to survive as a democracy, as a sovereign state, and, of course, to resist Russia.”

Sandu acknowledged that opinion polls show most Moldovans oppose unification and said that joining the European Union remains a more realistic objective. Moldova was granted E.U. candidate status in 2022, and in a 2024 referendum, a slim majority voted in favor of joining the bloc.

The president’s remarks sparked backlash from opposition forces, including the Party of Socialists, which demanded Sandu’s resignation and called for her prosecution on treason charges.

However, as Moldovan journalist Paula Erizanu told Meduza, Sandu’s statement was hardly unprecedented. “Maia Sandu has been saying she would vote for Moldova’s reunification with Romania in a referendum since 2016–2018, so for Moldovans the statement was not new,” Erizanu said, adding that much of the criticism has come from “pro-Russian actors.”

Meanwhile, she explained, committed unionists such as populist lawmaker Vasile Costiuc have “seized the opportunity to propose the actual organization of this supposed referendum through Parliament,” though she said it’s too early to tell whether the initiative will gain any momentum.

Moldova, which was part of the Russian Empire for almost the entire 19th century as the Bessarabia Governorate, proclaimed independence in 1918 and immediately joined Romania. The U.S.S.R., which did not recognize Romania’s sovereignty over Moldova, forced Bucharest to cede the territory back in 1940 by threatening military intervention. The political dispute over whether Moldovans should be considered a distinct ethnicity from Romanians has been debated for centuries.

In 2024, Maia Sandu, who holds Romanian citizenship in addition to Moldovan, narrowly won reelection to a second term as president of Moldova. At the same time, a referendum was held on adding a provision to the country’s constitution enshrining its aspiration to join the European Union. Sandu urged voters to support the amendment, and it passed with 50.4 percent of the vote. In both the presidential election and the referendum, Sandu’s victory was secured by the Moldovan diaspora; within the country itself, opponents of European integration and supporters of pro-Russian presidential candidate Alexandr Stoianoglo held a slim lead.

Following the 2025 elections, Sandu’s Party of Action and Solidarity holds 55 of the 101 seats in the Moldovan parliament, while another six seats belong to the Democracy at Home party, which advocates unification with Romania. The remaining 40 seats are divided among parties opposed to European integration and regarded as pro-Russian to varying degrees.

Regular opinion polls show that the idea of unification with Romania enjoys steady support from about one-third of Moldovan citizens. Moldovan political scientist Vitaliy Andrievsky told Deutsche Welle, “If the Russian army had advanced to Moldova’s borders, over 70 percent of Moldovans would have voted for unification with Romania out of pure survival instinct.”

Meanwhile, Sandu’s statement was welcomed by many Romanian politicians, including the president. “While Romanian president Nicușor Dan has also declared that he supports reunification, it is not clear how the rest of the Romanian political elite would react to this question,” Erizanu said. “The Romanian popular support for reunification has dropped from around 60 percent to 40 percent since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.”