Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Moldova’s capital Chisinau on Sunday in support of the country’s pro-European orientation, Reuters reported. Moldovan President Maia Sanduová called for the demonstration.
Last June, the EU granted Moldova the status of a candidate country. However, Sanduová has long drawn attention to the danger from Russia, which, according to her, is trying to prevent Moldova’s rapprochement with the EU bloc with the help of propaganda. Moreover, since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Moldova, wedged between Ukraine and Romania, has come under pressure from rising prices and fears that the war could spill over into its territory.
“Moldova does not wish to be blackmailed by the Kremlin,” Sandu told protesters in a square in downtown Chisinau. The meeting, organized by the Moldovan government, attracted a police estimate of 75,000 protesters. Images appeared on social networks square flooded with people and shots of demonstrators with the flags of Moldova and the European Union.
“We don’t want to be on the edge of Europe anymore,” the president also declared, promising that Moldova would become a member of the EU by 2030. The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, also addressed the assembly in Chisinau, saying that the EU bloc would welcome Moldova “with open arms and with an open heart”.
On June 1, European leaders will gather in Chisinau for the summit of the European Political Community (EPC), including high-ranking representatives of EU countries and EU institutions. According to Sanduová, this meeting will be important for Chisinau and for Europe. The previous summit was held last October in Prague.
In February of this year, Sandu accused Russia of wanting to carry out a violent coup in Moldova using opposition forces. Transnistria, among others, is a source of tension in Moldovan-Russian relations. A predominantly Russian-speaking strip of territory on the left bank of the Dniester River with several hundred thousand inhabitants broke away from Moldova in the early 1990s out of fear of the unification of Moldova with ethnically and linguistically related Romania. Transnistria is not officially recognized by any state, but the entity has the support of Moscow, which has deployed several hundred of its soldiers there.
