The election result in Moldova is a heavy defeat for Russia and the Kremlin, which invested a lot of energy and resources in conducting a pro-Russian campaign. The fear of penetrating Russian influence was clearly enormous, writes Keno Ferzek.
"Russia and Russian influence? No, thank you!" - with this clear message from an unexpectedly large majority, the parliamentary elections in Moldova ended. The clear winner is the ruling pro-European Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS), which, contrary to polls, won over 50 percent of the vote and will surprisingly retain its current absolute majority. It will probably have 55 out of 101 seats in the new parliament, but loses eight compared to the 2021 election results.
The pro-Russian electoral alliance "Patriotic Bloc" under the leadership of former President Igor Dodon took only 24 percent of the vote and performed much worse than expected. The formally neutral, but de facto pro-Russian electoral bloc "Alternative" of Chisinau Mayor Ion Ceban with eight percent will also enter the new parliament, as will the party of populist businessman Renato Usatii - "Our Party", with six percent.
The second big surprise of the elections was the entry into parliament of a party that no poll predicted such success - the right-wing populist "Democracy at Home", which received 5.6 percent of the vote. It advocates the unification of Moldova with Romania and is affiliated with the Romanian far-right “Alliance for the Unification of Romanians“. The party's chairman, Gheorghe Simion, is banned from entering Moldova.
The success is not only among the Moldovan diaspora abroad
After a detailed vote count, it was seen that the Party of Action and Justice managed to win not only among the strong Moldovan diaspora in Western European countries, but also in three quarters of the electoral districts in the country. The “Patriotic Bloc“ ranked first in the traditionally pro-Russian northern regions of Moldova and in the autonomous region of Gagauzia, as well as among the relatively small number of voters in the separatist region of Transnistria.
So it turns out that the election result is, first of all, a heavy defeat for Russia and the Kremlin, which invested a lot of effort in conducting a pro-Russian campaign. The leader of the pro-European Party of Action and Justice (PAJ) Igor Grossu, who is also the speaker of parliament, said after the results were announced: “Moldova, I bow to you, you won the battle against the enemies of the country, who seemed invincible. Russia threw into the battle everything that is dirtiest at its disposal - tons of money, lies, irregularities“. Grossu described the result of the vote as a clear message that “at home, we decide ourselves, not Russia“. He said that not only his party won the elections, but the people of the country.
Three for Moldova, zero for Putin
One of the most popular PDS candidates, Radu Marian, wrote on Facebook on Monday night: “Moldova - 3, Putin - 0. Congratulations to the Moldovans!“. Along with the current vote, he was referring to the presidential elections in November 2024, won by pro-European President Maia Sandu and the EU referendum held in parallel, in which Moldova's European perspective received a majority, albeit by a small margin.
In recent weeks and months, Moldova has been flooded with pro-Russian content on social media. They were spread mainly by the “Patriotic Bloc“, but also by numerous unknown profiles. Vote buying was in turn organized by Moscow by businessman Ilan Shor, who was convicted in Moldova for “billion-dollar theft“.
Training camp for creating unrest
In recent weeks, the coordinators of his pre-election network have been arrested several times, with large sums of cash, propaganda materials, falsified ballots and weapons. In addition, Moldovan and Serbian police detained participants in a training camp in Serbia, where Moldovan and Romanian citizens were trained to cause unrest around the parliamentary elections.
The Central The Moldovan electoral commission has banned several pro-Russian parties from participating in the elections due to illegal campaign and party financing. The last two were banned days before the elections, including the pro-Russian party "Heart of Moldova" of Irina Vlah, a former governor of the autonomous region of Gagauzia, whose political elite is closely linked to the Kremlin.
An unusually emotional message
On Sunday, Moldovan President Maia Sandu addressed her voters with extreme emotion and anxiety, saying: “Russia is not our friend. It attacked a neighboring country without any motive, it turned off our gas tap, and now it wants to buy our votes and our country“. Later, Sandu wrote something else on Facebook: “Moldova is our country, not Shor's criminal group“.
The leader of the “Patriotic Bloc“ Igor Dodon said late Sunday night that the PDS had lost the elections and called for protests on Monday to defend “the people's victory over the PDS“. However, observers do not expect major protests or unrest in the coming days, as the result is unexpectedly clear. The mayor of Chisinau, Ion Ceban, wrote only this on Facebook: “Thank you all. We respect the voice of the citizens“.
The chairman of the PDS and the speaker of the parliament, Igor Grossu, defended the opposition's right to protest openly at a press conference. He called on the “Patriotic Bloc“ and his colleague and MP Igor Dodon to protest peacefully and not to pay the participants in the protests – as has always been the case.