Pro -European party PAS leads in the election of parliament

Experts warn of Russian influence

Choice of fate in Eastern Europe – Sandus Party is ahead

According to the first interim results, the pro -European force PAS leads in the parliamentary elections in Moldova. The vote decides on the country’s course between Moscow and Brussels.

According to initial counts, the pro -European party Action and Solidarity (PAS) is in the lead in Moldau in the parliamentary elections. The PAS, which has ruled since 2021, comes to 44.5 percent after counting almost 80 percent of the ballot papers, the election commission said on Sunday. According to the partial results, the pro-Russian patriotic block came to 27.8 percent.

The turnout was 51.9 percent when the polling stations in Moldau in Moldau was closed at 9:00 p.m. local time (8:00 p.m. CEST). Moldova living abroad, however, were able to vote until the local time there. The outcome of the vote depends primarily on the urn gang of the diaspora abroad. Hundreds of thousands of Moldova live in the EU, they traditionally have a great influence on who rules in their homeland. In the 2021 parliamentary election, the final turnout was 52.3 percent.

Moldau, who, like neighboring Ukraine, is an EU candidate for accession, traditionally sees itself between a pro-western course and Russia. “Let us allow us to sell our thieves and tries to sell our future,” said President Maia Sandu with a view to the pro-Russian forces, which hope for growth in the parliament. She herself had given her voice for a parliament with which a European Moldova could be built up, said Sandu, who had founded the government party Party Action and Solidarity (PAS), but acted.

The situation in the country with around 2.4 million inhabitants is currently tense. There were raids across the country last week, more than 70 people were arrested. They are accused of having prepared masses. According to the investigators, some suspects in Serbia have trained the use of weapons. Moldova authorities spoke of buying Russian voices, disinformation in social networks and cyber attacks.

Sandu told ZDF that the government in Moscow spends “hundreds of millions of euros” for “to finance political parties, even to bribe voters or to train young people to organize destabilization activities”. As early as the 2024 presidential election, there were allegations of votes and disinformation campaigns. Western experts see the growing influence of the Kremlin with great concern.

“The Kremlin buys voices in Moldau. He wants to bring Moldau back to his sphere of influence and, in the best case, threaten even more from Chisinau from Europe,” says Eastern Europe expert Brigitta Triebel, who works for the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Moldaus capital Chisiniau. Triebel says that Russia is working with disinformation campaigns “on Tikk, Facebook, Instagram, all channels are used to attack the EU. One claims that the EU wants to exclude Moldau, occupy, destroy its identity”.