Pro-Western Party Narrowly Wins Parliamentary Election in Moldova

Moldova's incumbent pro-Western Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) won a parliamentary majority in Sunday's parliamentary elections, defeating several parties that favored closer ties with Russia.

The Details: With nearly all votes counted by Monday morning, PAS secured 50.1% of the vote to secure victory. The pro-Russia Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc won 24.2%, the mayor of Chișinău's Alternativa Bloc won 8%, the populist Our Party won 6.2%, and the pro-Romanian Democracy at Home party also won 5.6% – enough votes to enter parliament.

Immediate Context: On Friday, Moldova banned two pro-Russian opposition parties from being included in Sunday's election. On Sunday, Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov claimed the French government pressured him to remove Moldovan channels from Telegram that it took issue with while he was under judicial supervision in France. A BBC News (Center bias) investigation published last week accused a "Russian-funded network" of attempting to influence the election. The US State Department previously allotted $22 million for influencing Moldova's elections, though recently, the Trump administration has scaled back funding and initiatives.

The Background: Moldovan President Maia Sandu, previously of PAS but independent since 2020, won the presidential election in November 2024, with 55.3% of the vote. Two weeks prior, Moldovans very narrowly approved a referendum that amended their constitution to make joining the European Union a national goal. Both pro-Western and pro-Russian factions accused each other of meddling in the vote.

How The Media Covered It: Most Western news sources framed the victory as a major win for Sandu and a defeat for Russia. Associated Press (Left) described it as a "clear" and "unambiguous" victory. Russian state-funded RT (Lean Right) highlighted that it was votes from Moldovans living abroad, particularly in Western countries, that propelled PAS to victory. It also noted that Moldova's pro-Russian breakaway province, Transnistria, didn't have any polling stations on its territory and that several were "abruptly relocated further away from the [territory] on the eve of the vote." BBC also noted this and wrote that low Transnistrian voter turnout was "an indication of the struggle many faced."

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