CHISINAU, Moldova — The leaders of France, Germany, and Poland traveled Wednesday to Moldova to mark the country\u2019s 34 years of independence from the Soviet Union, a month before it holds parliamentary elections that its president warns could draw Russian interference.<\/p>\n
France\u2019s President Emmanuel Macron, Germany\u2019s Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and Poland\u2019s Prime Minister Donald Tusk arrived in the capital of the European Union-candidate country for talks with pro-Western Moldovan President Maia Sandu. The leaders will also attend a public celebration to mark Independence Day, which Moldova proclaimed on August 27, 1991.<\/p>\n
Macron said in Chisinau that the visit aims to show that \u201cMoldova matters and that its future lies with Europe and the European Union.” <\/p>\n
The European leaders’ visit comes a month after Sandu warned that Russia is preparing an \u201cunprecedented interference\u201d campaign to undermine a parliamentary vote scheduled for Sep. 28, saying \u201cit poses a direct threat to our national security, sovereignty, and our country\u2019s European future.\u201d <\/p>\n
Russia has denied meddling in Moldova. <\/p>\n
\u201cYour presence here \u2014 France, Germany, Poland \u2014 shows not only your support for Moldova, but that the European project is alive, and that we are part of it,\u201d Sandu said on Wednesday. \u201cAnd let me say this clearly: There is no alternative to Europe. Without the European Union, Moldova will remain trapped in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, our independence, our sovereignty, our peace are tested more than ever,\u201d she added, reiterating the many ways Russia is allegedly trying to undermine her country. \u201cThese are immense pressures. But it is up to us whether they divide us or stop us on our path.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brussels agreed to open accession negotiations<\/a> with Moldova for EU membership last year after granting official candidate status in 2022, the same day as neighboring Ukraine. Last year, Moldovans voted narrowly in favor of securing the country\u2019s EU path. The same day, a presidential election was held, which secured Sandu a second term. But those two votes were overshadowed by widespread claims of Russian meddling<\/a>, which Moscow denied. <\/p>\n Moldova\u2019s staunchly pro-European path in recent years has drawn the ire of Moscow. Moldovan authorities have long accused Moscow of conducting a sprawling \u201chybrid war\u201d against it \u2014 spreading disinformation, vote-buying, paid protests \u2014 to destabalize the country and to try and derail its EU path. <\/p>\n Macron said France will continue to provide strong support to Moldova during the next stages of Moldova’s journey towards EU membership, a process that will likely take years. <\/p>\n \u201cWhile a few hundred kilometers from your capital, Russia\u2019s war of aggression against Ukraine continues to rage, it is also essential to remember that European integration is a clear choice from Moldova in favor of peace and justice,\u201d Macron said. \u201cKremlin propaganda claims that Europeans are prolonging the war and that the European Union oppresses peoples. These are lies … the European Union is not the Soviet Union.\u201d<\/p>\n Germany’s Merz also emphasized Europe\u2019s solidarity with Moldova and warned that \u201cevery day, Russia works tirelessly to disrupt and undermine freedom, prosperity, and peace\u201d in the former Soviet republic.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the run-up to the upcoming parliamentary elections in this country, not a day goes by without massive hybrid attacks from Russia,\u201d Merz said. \u201cMoldova\u2019s democracy is in the crosshairs, both online and offline. A free, open, liberal society is in the crosshairs.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat is why Germany is helping. And that is why Europe is helping. We are supporting Moldova in the fight against disinformation and in the fight against cyber campaigns,\u201d the chancellor added. \u201cWe are helping by strengthening their security forces.”<\/p>\n Moldova\u2019s governing pro-Western Party of Action and Solidarity, or PAS, has been in power since 2021, and risks losing its majority in the upcoming fall election, with no clear pro-European alternatives on the ballot.<\/p>\n Cristian Cantir, a Moldovan associate professor of international relations at Oakland University, told The Associated Press that \u201cmost Moldovans understand that the visit is essentially a show of support for Moldova\u2019s pro-European path.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere really is no other kind of viable pro-European or pro-Western party,\u201d he said, adding that if PAS fails to win a majority, \u201cthings get very complicated because every other party is not as pro-European, and is much more committed to reconciliation or some sort of rapprochement with Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2014<\/p>\n Stephen McGrath reported from Leamington Spa, U.K; Kirsten Grieshaber contributed from Berlin, and Sylvie Corbet from Paris. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHISINAU, Moldova — The leaders of France, Germany, and Poland traveled Wednesday to Moldova to mark the country\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[131889,3907,33,2000,299,5187,4179,2845,285,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-378132","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-131889","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-elections","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-europe","13":"tag-european","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-misinformation","16":"tag-politics","17":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115101829960827797","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}