{"id":398985,"date":"2024-10-21T13:45:15","date_gmt":"2024-10-21T11:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/10\/21\/voto-moldova-adesione-ue-presidente-sandu\/"},"modified":"2024-10-24T20:06:59","modified_gmt":"2024-10-24T18:06:59","slug":"moldovas-double-vote-brings-chisinau-closer-to-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/10\/21\/moldovas-double-vote-brings-chisinau-closer-to-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Moldova’s double vote brings Chisinau closer to Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – With a razor-thin majority,\u00a0Moldovan citizens\u00a0decided that their country’s future lies in joining the European Union<\/strong>. The “yes” vote in the people’s referendum<\/strong> on membership passed in the lead on Monday morning (Oct. 21), the day after the polls closed, and it appears that the boost came from residents abroad<\/strong>. However, presidential elections <\/strong>were also held Sunday: outgoing president Maia Sandu<\/strong>, a pro-European who has repeatedly denounced Russian interference<\/strong> in the national democratic process, is in the lead<\/strong> but will have to go to a runoff\u200b <\/strong>in two weeks.<\/p>\n

Chisinau to Brussels<\/h3>\n

It seemed like it was already time to sing the dirge of Moldova’s European ambitions, with the front opposed to EU entry<\/strong> of the small East European country seeming to have a clear lead<\/strong> until the early hours of Monday. However,\u00a0in the final stretch, there was a turnaround driven by votes from abroad, <\/strong>counted only at the end, and votes from the capital, Chisinau, which arrived at dawn today. Throughout the night between Sunday and Monday, the “no” vote in the referendum remained firmly in the lead (with a percentage ranging between 55 and 57). However, the situation reversed – at least according to preliminary data <\/strong>from\u00a0the Central Election Commission<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The distance between the two sides<\/strong> runs on a razor’s edge<\/a> but is\u00a0enough for the pro-European front to win: 50.39 versus 49.61 percent,<\/strong> with over 99 percent of the votes counted. The gap would be a few thousand votes<\/strong>, just over 11 thousand out of a total population of 2.5 million. The voter turnout<\/strong> was well above the threshold required for the referendum to be valid (33.3 percent), with more than half of the eligible voters (51.68 percent) going to the polls.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0referendum<\/a> asked citizens whether to insert into the Basic Charter<\/strong> the former Soviet republic’s commitment toward\u00a0integration into the European club<\/strong>. Specifically, the preamble to the Constitution should now be enriched with two new paragraphs to “reconfirm the European identity<\/strong> of the people of the Republic of Moldova and the irreversibility of the European path<\/strong>” and to “declare integration into the European Union a strategic goal<\/strong> of the Republic of Moldova.”<\/p>\n

Russian Shadow<\/h3>\n

According to many observers, the success of the anti-EU front was allegedly\u00a0also due to a heavy campaign of interference orchestrated by Moscow, which has every interest in keeping Moldova away from Brussels. When the “no” vote in the referendum was still in the lead, Sandu accused<\/a> “criminal groups” linked to the Kremlin<\/strong>\u00a0of interference with the vote<\/strong> to prevent the former Soviet republic from leaving the Russian orbit. “We have clear evidence that these criminal groups have attempted to buy 300,000 votes<\/strong>,” she said, adding that the aim was\u00a0“undermining a democratic process” and “spreading fear and panic in society.”<\/p>\n

From Brussels, she was echoed by the EU executive’s foreign affairs spokesman, Peter Stano<\/strong>: “We have noted that this vote has taken place under unprecedented interference and intimidation by Russia<\/strong>” and other actors traceable to the Federation, he said during a press conference, “aiming to\u00a0destabilize the democratic processes<\/strong> in the Republic of Moldova.” After all, this is hardly a surprise. “This foreign interference and manipulation of information” by the Kremlin “has many faces, and it is happening in many forms not just a few days before the vote,” Stano added, speaking of “a long-term effort” that came into the Commission’s crosshairs “a long time ago.” At the beginning of the month<\/a>,\u00a0 Moldovan authorities dismantled a\u00a0massive vote-buying s<\/strong>cheme, which they traced back to the meddling of oligarch Ilan Shor<\/strong>, who is close to Moscow and currently living in Russia. Last week, they foiled another plot involving more than a hundred young people who had allegedly received training from private Russian military groups<\/strong> on how to create riots at last Sunday’s double vote<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The European aspirations of the incumbent leadership<\/h3>\n

A pro-Western government<\/strong>\u00a0has led Moldova, a former Soviet republic,<\/strong> since 2021, with\u00a0pro-EU President Maia Sandu<\/strong> elected the previous year.<\/p>\n

Executive and head of state are attempting to unseat the Balkan nation<\/strong> from what Russian President Vladimir Putin<\/strong> continues to consider the Federation’s “sphere of influence.” For decades, Chisinau has been grappling with the separatists of Transnistria<\/strong>, a piece of land<\/a> on the border with Ukraine, which auto-proclaimed itself independent<\/strong> in 1990 and continues to challenge Moldovan sovereignty and territorial integrity thanks to Russia’s support.<\/p>\n

In March 2022, Moldova applied to join the EU<\/strong> along with Ukraine and was granted Candidate Country<\/strong> status in June of that year, again in tandem with Kyiv. Last December, the European Council gave the green light to formally launch accession negotiations<\/strong>, a decision that materialized in June\u00a0this year with the first intergovernmental conference<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Presidential runoff<\/h3>\n

Sunday’s election date was double:\u00a0in addition to casting their vote on Chisinau’s European future, Moldovans were also called\u00a0to choose the new head of state<\/strong>, who is to take office when the term of the outgoing president, 52-year-old Sandu (next December) expires.<\/p>\n

The current president (the first woman to hold that post, already the first female minister for a few months in 2019) won<\/a> 42.31 percent of the vote when the polls were almost complete, which placed her solidly in the lead<\/strong> but did not allow her to achieve a second term in the first round. She will now have to challenge pro-Russian candidate Alexandr Stoianoglo<\/strong> (who won\u00a026.09 percent of the votes) in the runoff scheduled for Nov. 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The referendum on EU membership, while heavily influenced by Russian interference, appears to have been won by a whisker by the “yes” vote thanks to the diaspora and the Capital. Presidential elections will go to a runoff in November, with outgoing Maia Sandu considered the favorite<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":398932,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[27620,27627,25836,29436,27094,29435,29422,25803,26458],"class_list":["post-398985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-adesione-allue-en","tag-accession-to-theeu","tag-eu-enlargement-en","tag-maia-sandu-en","tag-moldova-en","tag-election-presidential-en","tag-referendum-en-2","tag-russia-in-2","tag-vladimir-putin-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398985"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":399057,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398985\/revisions\/399057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}