'The fight is not over'

Relief for the EU but risks still remain

- Jennifer Rankin

In the end, the results were better than Moldova's western allies had dared hope. In Sunday's parliamentary elections, the pro-European Union party of Maia Sandu won a convincing victory, confirming the westward path of this former Soviet republic of 2.4 million people.

With nearly all ballots counted, the president's ruling Action and Solidarity party (PAS) had secured 50.03% of the vote, compared with 24.26% for the pro-Russian Patriotic bloc. The solid win came despite widespread reports of Russian meddling and a series of shocks that could have toppled any incumbent government.

Since the last parliamentary elections in 2021, Russia's full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine has led to the settling of 135,000 people in Moldova - the highest per capita number of Ukrainian refugees in the world - and an energy price shock that sent inflation spiralling to a 34% peak. Despite these headwinds, the PAS saw its share of the vote drop by less than 3% compared with 2021.

For Sandu, a former World Bank official who was reelected president in 2024, it is an emphatic victory. She wants Moldova to join the EU by 2030. With a secure parliamentary majority, rather than the divided coalition many pollsters had predicted, it should be easier to push through the demanding political and economic reforms required to join the bloc.