Hungary is holding a vote next week that Moscow and Brussels see as key to determining whether the country will tilt to Moscow or cleave closer to the EU. Next year, France, Italy, Spain and Poland are expected to hold elections.

French authorities say they detected low-level Russian-backed disinformation campaigns ahead of municipal elections in March. They have warned of a high risk of interference in next year’s presidential election. Disinformation campaigns and other hybrid war operations are likely to favor populist movements, including the top-polling far-right National Rally, which has historically been friendly to Russia.

In a document shared with EU officials shortly after last year’s Moldovan parliamentary election and seen by POLITICO, the government argued that the path to joining the EU was narrow. 

Moldovan President Maia Sandu speaks at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France on Jan. 27, 2026. | Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu via Getty Images

The victory by pro-European parties last year offered “a window of opportunity,” the document read. “However, failure to exploit it and consolidate the win … may result in a massive shift towards populists which would favor Russia’s interests. In turn, it will have far-reaching security consequences for the region.”

Sandu has been touring EU capitals to make the case why the bloc should admit her country. The EU has linked Chișinău’s bid to join with Kyiv’s, and formal negotiations with both are stalled due to opposition from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to Ukraine’s accession.

In a speech to the Latvian parliament on Wednesday, Sandu pitched Moldova’s integration as a matter of “strategic coherence” — arguing that leaving countries like hers outside the bloc would be a gift to the Kremlin.

“A Europe that is serious about its security must be serious about its Eastern neighborhood,” she said. “It cannot support Ukraine with one hand while leaving democratic nations in gray zones with the other. And it cannot warn its citizens about the forces working to divide them while leaving those forces a ready target just outside its borders.”