Moldova to focus on aligning national laws with EU standards after Maia Sandu’s party wins election despite Russian interference

Moldova’s ruling Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS), founded by incumbent President Maia Sandu, secured a win in the country’s Sept. 28 parliamentary elections. Sandu’s PAS won 55 out of 101 seats — slightly fewer than in the previous parliament, but still enough to pass legislation on its own without relying on other parties to form a governing coalition. The pro-Russian “Patriotic Bloc” finished second, taking 26 seats.

Commenting on the outcome, Sandu said that even if Russian troops remain illegally stationed on Moldovan territory, the country’s integration into the European Union will still proceed.

“We want to join the European Union in one step, as a reintegrated country. But if that is not possible — you know Russia illegally maintains troops on Moldova’s territory, and this is the biggest obstacle — then there is a scenario for accession in two steps,” Sandu said.

Historian, political scientist, and former diplomat Alexei Tulbure told The Insider that the new parliament’s main task will be to bring Moldova’s legislation in line with EU norms.

“PAS has the ability to form a government on its own. They don’t need a coalition, and I think the parliament’s calendar and agenda are set for several years. Moldova is now an EU candidate. We just completed the screening stage, meaning the review of our legislation for compliance with European standards. Parliament is essentially bound to this work.

It will be a legislative conveyor belt, and they will work tirelessly. If opposition parties join the process, all the better. If not, PAS has enough seats to pass laws on its own. The priority task is European integration, and that is what parliament will focus on. The main result of the elections is that we withstood Russia and its agents’ assault on Moldova. We preserved our European course and our democracy,” Tulbure said.

On Sept. 29, after the Central Election Commission published the official election results, pro-Russian “Patriotic Bloc” leader Igor Dodon declared that he would not recognize PAS’s victory, calling on supporters to take to the streets. A protest was then held in downtown Chisinau. According to local outlet NewsMaker, police detained 31 people, most of them from Transnistria, the self-proclaimed separatist republic that borders western Ukraine.

Interrogation videos released by the police showed detainees admitting they were offered anywhere from $50 to $150 to attend.

Reporting by The Insider prior to the election also indicated that dozens of “observers” who had shown no previous interest in the country had applied to monitor the Sept. 28 vote. Many of them were previously spotted at so-called “referendums” in Russian-occupied Crimea and the “Donetsk People’s Republic,” among other projects promoting Russian disinformation.

An analysis by the Kirill Parubets Center prior to the election also laid out the various levers the Kremlin was attempting to use as part of its effort to sway the result: vote-buying, staged protests, and massive disinformation campaigns aimed at dividing Moldovan society.

All of those efforts failed.

Tulbure said the results show that Moldovans understand the dangers posed by Moscow’s proxies in the country.

“We are two steps away from EU membership, and such a favorable international climate for our accession may never come again. If we miss the chance today, it will be a tragedy for us, and Moldovans understood this. These were good elections, both at home and among the diaspora. Moreover, there is active state resistance to Russian influence. We constantly worked to prevent outside forces from destroying our fragile democratic foundations, exposing Ilan Shor’s corrupt schemes [to bribe voters]. Every few weeks police uncovered new parts of his network.

Parties with clear evidence of ties to Shor and Russia, including financial ones, were barred from the election. They received money directly from Moscow or through Shor and used it to buy voters, pay protesters, and bribe opinion leaders and bloggers. In another context, such actions by the authorities might seem excessive, bordering on violating democratic principles. But in our case, it is defending democracy from attempts to destroy it. We realized how dangerous this was and began using extraordinary measures.”

The “Patriotic Bloc” could have performed better if not for internal divisions, Tulbure argued.

“The bloc includes the Socialist Party, the Communist Party, Heart of Moldova, and Future of Moldova. All are splinters of the Communist Party. They all hate each other and have betrayed each other at different times. They do not sympathize or want to cooperate, but were forced into one bloc by curators in Moscow. This affects the bloc’s performance. They won half as many seats as PAS, the main pro-European force. Their ideology is a mix of hatred of homosexuals, ‘world imperialism,’ and support for the church and the ‘traditional family.’ Russians are familiar with this set of ideas, but in Moldova, few people are inspired by it. When you put these slogans against the ideas of European integration, modernization, and economic growth, they are incomparable,” Tulbure said.