Last month, the country\u2019s pro-EU President Maia Sandu similarly warned that Moscow is \u201corchestrating an unprecedented\u201d campaign<\/a>. Her center-right Party of Action and Solidarity pais currently leading the polls at 39 percent, with the pro-Russia Socialist party trailing at just under 15 percent. However, a sizable 30 percent of voters remain undecided<\/a> \u2014 and those votes will determine whether Moldova leans West, toward the EU and democracy, or East, toward President Vladimir Putin\u2019s Russia.<\/p>\n Remaining on the path to EU integration would drive economic development and signal to investors that the country can be trusted. Free trade and the free movement of goods, services and people would also increase job opportunities and economic growth, enticing many Moldovans to return home \u2014 over the last 30 years, the country lost about 1.5 million people<\/a> out of a population of 4.3 million.<\/p>\n Additionally, EU membership could offer more leverage when tackling corruption<\/a>. Moldova needs a drastic break with oligarchic practices \u2014 which the current government is moving to do. The likes of Shor and former Democratic Party Chairman Vladimir Plahotniuc have made oligarchic abuse<\/a> infamous, after being charged in the disappearance of more than $1 billion \u2014 that\u2019s 12.5 percent of Moldova\u2019s GDP<\/a> \u2014 from the country\u2019s biggest banks.<\/p>\n A destabilized Moldova, on the other hand, would wreak havoc on the wider region. The country carries significant strategic importance for the EU, and much like Ukraine, it is a buffer zone between NATO and Russia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Undeniably, what\u2019s at stake in the upcoming vote is whether or not Moldova keeps to its European trajectory.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[768,2575,31,13071,33,28284,3374,6561,2000,46647,299,5187,1699,27750,1195,1197,660,51099,13491,6658,1438,332,182,657,335],"class_list":{"0":"post-390824","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-borders","9":"tag-corruption","10":"tag-democracy","11":"tag-disinformation","12":"tag-elections","13":"tag-elections-in-europe","14":"tag-employment","15":"tag-enlargement","16":"tag-eu","17":"tag-eu-russia-relations","18":"tag-europe","19":"tag-european","20":"tag-european-union","21":"tag-frontex","22":"tag-growth","23":"tag-investment","24":"tag-kremlin","25":"tag-maia-sandu","26":"tag-moldova","27":"tag-refugees","28":"tag-romania","29":"tag-russia","30":"tag-social-media","31":"tag-ukraine","32":"tag-war-in-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115132461497936112","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390824","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=390824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2178780057-1024x683.jpg\")
Remaining on the path to EU integration would drive economic development and signal to investors that the country can be trusted. | Daniel Mihailescu\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n