The Moldovans having rejected This Sunday, against all expectations, the entry into the European Union, during a constitutional referendum boycotted by Russia, which Chisinau accuses of resorting to all kinds of stratagems to cause the consultation to fail.
“We have evidence and information that a criminal group intended to buy 300,000 votes. This is an unprecedented fraud whose objective is to compromise democracy. Their goal is to sow fear and panic in society,” he said. Maia Sandu, the Moldovan president, during a very brief appearance before the media.
Even if the previous polls assured the victory of Yes, according to the Central Electoral Commission (CEC), a 53.96% of Moldovans voted against European integration and only 46.04% voted for, after controlling almost 90% of the votes.
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Election day saw a sharp division in the former Soviet republic between those who support EU membership –Romanian speakers, young people and the diaspora– and those who oppose the break with Russia, among whom are the Russian speakers, the nostalgic and the older.
The referendum coincided with the presidential elections, during which Sandu won, but not by an absolute majorityhe will therefore have to face the Kremlin candidate next month, Alexander Stoinanoglo.
The black hand of the Kremlin
Sandu stressed in his post-election intervention that “today, as in recent months, freedom and democracy in Moldova have been the subject of unprecedented attack”, as reported by the Moldovan portal Journalist.
“Criminal groups, associated with foreign forces, They attacked our country with lies and propaganda (…) We will never stop defending freedom and democracy. We will wait for the final results and come back with solutions,” he added.
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The president mentioned without mentioning the Kremlin and the fugitive oligarch Ilon Shor, that the Moldovan prosecutor’s office accused on the eve of the vote of having created a fraudulent scheme by Moscow for the purchasing around 130,000 votes with $15 million deposited in Russian banks.
According to other sources, Russia spent $100 million to boycott the referendum aimed at including in the preamble to the Constitution the Moldovans’ aspiration to join the European bloc.
In recent weeks, the EU and the United States have denounced numerous attempts by Moscow to destabilize the situation in Moldova ahead of the European referendum, which is why they have approved new sanctions against Moscow and its cronies.
The war silenced the European illusion
Actions from Moldova border with Ukraine, The war therefore had a great impact on the national economy due to the arrival of more than a million refugees, of whom more than 120,000 are still in the country, according to the UNHCR.
Since Sandu came to power in 2020, the pandemic and energy war with Russia, which triggered inflation.
It helped that the Moldovan government, which began accession negotiations in December 2023, received a big boost from Brussels on the eve of the vote with an aid package of 1.8 billion dinars. euros for the next three years.
According to the CEC, the pro-Russian electorate, including that of the autonomy of Gagauzia – more than 95% against -, was much more vocal than the voters of the capital, Chisinau, and the emigrants – more than 70% for -, more inclined to enter the European bloc.
Boycott of pro-Russian candidates
Although Stoianoglo, a former attorney general, and the third candidate in the running, Renato Usatii, They proclaimed that they were not opposed to European integration, they ultimately boycotted the referendum, as did the Moldovan communists.
Stoianoglo argued that did not vote in the popular consultation “as a sign of protest” due to the authorities’ inability to explain the legal implications of including Moldovans’ aspiration to join the EU in the preamble to the Constitution.
Without mentioning it, both called for the vote of fear, referring to the fact that entry into the EU, which helped Moldova strengthen its armed forces in the face of the Russian threat, is a first step towards a future membership of NATO.
Former President Igor Dodon, a close Kremlin ally whose party supported Stoianoglo, went further and openly called the referendum a “ “illegal” and “unconstitutional”.
