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Maia Sandu, a former prime minister and candidate of the pro-European opposition, won the presidential elections in Moldova by beating outgoing President Igor Dodon, the country’s most important pro-Russian politician, in a vote. Sandu, from the Action and Solidarity party, obtained 56% of the votes with 99% of the votes, according to data communicated by the Moldovan national commission. In the first round, held two weeks ago, Sandu had obtained 36.1% of the votes, Dodon 32.6%.
On Sunday night, with the publication of the first results, several Sandu supporters gathered in front of his party’s headquarters in the center of the capital, Chisinau, to celebrate the result of the vote. Speaking to the crowd, Sandu promised to unite the country and fight corruption, which has been the focus of his political agenda for some years.
Moldovan politics has changed a lot lately. For years, in fact, the country had been controlled by the pro-Russian Socialist Party and the Democratic Party of Moldova (PDM), an openly pro-European but widely accused of corruption, led by Vlad Plahotniuc, an oligarch considered the most powerful man (and shaded) of the country. For a long time, the two parties shared power and spheres of influence, completely blocking necessary reforms in the country.
Sandu studied economics at Harvard and worked for the World Bank before returning to Moldova to do politics. Between 2012 and 2015 she had been Minister of Education in a government led by the PDM, but after that experience she managed to create a European opposition front that had undermined popular support for the PDM, which in reality was always tight. Presenting itself as a true pro-European force, it had established itself as an alternative to the pro-Russian parties rather than the PDM. Sandu had already been a presidential candidate in 2016, again against Dodon, and had lost some votes, so much so that she had spoken of fraud.
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In the 2019 parliamentary elections he had achieved an excellent result, causing an important political development in the country: he had allied himself with the Socialists, excluding the PDM from national politics. Sandu had become prime minister and president of Dodon, but the Constitutional Court, controlled by Plahotniuc, had overturned the establishment of the government, opening a serious political crisis. After days of protests, the decision was reversed and Plahotniuc had to leave the country (he still lives in Turkey today). However, Sandu’s experience in government did not last long and five months later she was discouraged as prime minister in a crisis maneuvered by the Socialists and Dodon, at odds with her proposal to make the appointment of the country’s highest judicial office more transparent. .
Sandu ran for the 2020 presidential elections with a program similar to that of previous election campaigns: an approach to the European Union to obtain funds and support for the fundamental reforms that the country needs, one of the poorest in Europe, and in the that approximately one third of the population lives abroad. Votes from abroad appear to have been fundamental to his election.
This is the queue of Moldovans waiting to vote in the second round of today’s presidential elections, at an electoral college in Germany. The choice is between the pro-Russian incumbent and his pro-European challenger. pic.twitter.com/I3n4nrqi1b
– Will Vernon (@BBCWillVernon) November 15, 2020
According to some observers, he could now call early parliamentary elections to try to win a majority in parliament as well, which is now controlled by the Socialists, a party until recently led by Dodon, who had nevertheless run as an independent candidate to avoid a possible constitutional conflict. . However, he had received the support of the party and of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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