CHISINAU (Reuters) -Four pro-Russian parties in Moldova said on Tuesday they will form a bloc in order to secure victory in September’s parliamentary election and beat the current pro-European government.
The vote, scheduled for September 28, could see President Maia Sandu’s Party of Action and Solidarity unable to secure a majority in the ex-Soviet state lying between Ukraine and Romania.
The bloc will merge the Party of Socialists, headed by former president Igor Dodon, the Heart of Moldova and Future of Moldova parties, as well as the Communist Party.
“We are in favour of re-establishing strategic ties with Russia. We want peace, not war … Our bloc will put an end to foreign interests and NATO,” Dodon told a press conference as he introduced the new union.
Sandu won re-election last year by a razor-thin margin over a Socialist challenger and a referendum asking voters to back the drive for EU membership only just cleared a 50% majority.
On July 19, Moldova’s election committee refused to register the bloc Victory, formed in 2024 and backed by pro-Kremlin fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor, for the vote.
Moldovan officials have said that Shor has played a leading role in Russian-backed interference aimed at derailing Moldova’s EU course. Shor denies the allegations and dismissed the decision as absurd.
(Reporting by Alexander Tanas, writing by Yuliia DysaEditing by Alexandra Hudson)
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