Moldova’s pro-European Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) has secured a narrow parliamentary majority in elections overshadowed by allegations of EU and Russian interference by the competing sides, near-complete results showed on Monday.

With 99.5% of ballots counted, the pro-EU PAS, led by President Maia Sandu, had won 50.03% of the vote, enough to maintain control of the 101-seat parliament, according to the Central Electoral Commission. The pro-Russia Patriotic Bloc trailed with 24.26%.

The outcome, slightly below the 52.8% PAS gained in 2021, is seen as pivotal for the small EU candidate nation, which borders Ukraine and hosts the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, most commonly known as Transnistria.

The vote was widely viewed as a referendum on whether Moldova would continue its path toward Brussels or drift back into Moscow’s orbit.

A fragile mandate

Analysts described the victory as tenuous. “Statistically speaking, PAS has guaranteed a fragile majority,” said Andrei Curararu of the Chisinau-based think tank WatchDog.md. But he warned that “the danger has not passed, as a functional government is difficult to form.”

Former president Igor Dodon, a leader of the Patriotic Bloc, called on supporters to protest the results on Monday, accusing PAS of electoral fraud. “If during the night there are falsifications, tomorrow we won’t recognise the parliamentary elections… and we will ask for elections to be repeated,” Dodon declared outside the electoral commission late Sunday.

Turnout reached 52%, roughly in line with participation in the 2021 parliamentary elections.

Casting her vote, President Sandu warned of what she perceives as “massive interference of Russia.” Moldova’s cybersecurity agency later reported that multiple attempted attacks on electoral infrastructure had been “neutralised in real time… without affecting the availability or integrity of electoral services.”

In Transnistria, separatist authorities accused Chisinau of limiting voter participation by reducing polling stations for Moldovans in the region. Meanwhile, Moldovan prosecutors reported conducting hundreds of searches related to alleged “electoral corruption” and “destabilisation attempts,” with dozens of arrests made in the run-up to the vote.

Despite the turbulence, analysts say the outcome will be crucial in determining whether Moldova can stay on track to meet its 2030 goal of EU membership.

Durov accuses France of pressuring him to censor Moldovan channels

Pavel Durov, the billionaire founder of Telegram, said on Sunday that French intelligence had pressured him, via an intermediary, to remove certain Moldovan channels from the messaging app in exchange for favorable treatment in his ongoing legal case in France.

In a statement posted on X, Durov said that while under judicial supervision in Paris following his 2024 arrest, French intelligence operatives tried to exploit his legal situation. According to him, an intermediary approached with a request to “censor” Moldovan channels on behalf of the government.

Durov said he complied only in part: “A few that clearly violated our rules” were removed. But he added that the intermediary promised France’s intelligence services would “say good things” about him to the judge who ordered his arrest, a suggestion he denounced as “unacceptable.”

“If the agency did in fact approach the judge, it constituted an attempt to interfere in the judicial process,” he wrote. “If it did not, and merely claimed to have done so, then it was exploiting my legal situation in France to influence political developments in Eastern Europe.”

The French Foreign Ministry dismissed the accusations, noting that Durov had made similar claims during elections in Romania earlier this year. “After Romania, Moldova. @durov likes making accusations while elections are ongoing,” the ministry wrote in English on X.

Durov was arrested at a French airport in 2024 and remains under investigation for alleged organized criminal activity on Telegram, charges he has called “legally and logically absurd.” He has long positioned himself as a defender of digital freedoms. 

Russia warns NATO plans to turn Moldova into military foothold

Back in July, Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) sounded the alarm over NATO's plot to militarize Moldova and use it as a springboard for aggression against Russia.

"According to the information received by the intelligence service, NATO is actively preparing to involve Moldova in a possible armed conflict with Russia," the SVR said.

"A decision has been taken in Brussels to transform this country into the alliance's frontline foothold on the eastern flank, taking into account Russian armed forces' advance in Ukraine," it added.

The SVR warned that NATO is exploiting Moldova's territory to facilitate rapid troop deployment near Russian borders and is imposing foreign military doctrines through newly built training centers.

Read next: NATO pushing Moldova military to confront Russia: FSB