Moldova’s EU path built on eroding democracy – analyst

The EU candidate state is said to face a choice between the bloc’s priorities and a Trump-promoted focus on national sovereignty

The Moldovan government has alienated voters by misrepresenting its crackdown on democratic institutions as necessary to further integration with the EU and offering a false choice between “democracy” and “authoritarianism,” according to American analyst Darren Spinck.

People in the fractured EU candidate state will take to the polls for parliamentary elections next month, and will be faced with a choice between unwavering loyalty to technocrats in Brussels or a more pluralistic political system supporting national sovereignty of the kind promoted by US President Donald Trump, Spinck suggested in an article in the National Interest magazine on Monday.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu claims that the country’s path to the EU depends on her staying in power, and has labeled opposition figures as “pro-Russian” to justify erosion of democratic institutions during her tenure. Moscow has accused her of betraying Moldova’s national interests for the sake of alignment with Brussels’ policies.

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Chisinau’s record of barring opposition candidates from the ballot box and silencing media outlets associated with political figures have contributed to the nation’s downward slide on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s annual Democracy Index, noted Spinck, who is an associate fellow at the Henry Jackson Society think tank.

“Moldova is emerging as a frontline state between two competing twenty-first-century visions of democracy: one rooted in sovereignty, tradition, and pragmatic governance, as envisioned by the Trump administration, and the other grounded in technocratic liberalism, embraced by Brussels,” he wrote.

The article cited recent opinion polls that indicate Moldovan voters are predominantly concerned with domestic issues such as corruption and inflation, and are increasingly disillusioned with the current government. The bloc of parties opposing the ruling Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) could deny Sandu an outright majority at the parliamentary elections in September, he pointed out.

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Spinck argued that the Trump administration is also facing a choice on whether to “stick with Washington’s old playbook” and back Sandu the way President Joe Biden’s administration did, or to “engage constructively with whichever parties succeed in forming Moldova’s next government.”

The US has the power to “apply a new litmus test” for Moldova’s “civilizational alignments,” the analyst argued. If it is “not based on blind ideological loyalty to Brussels” but instead “prioritizes pluralism, tradition, and civil liberties,” the new approach would further American interests. Choosing otherwise would be “prioritizing the EU’s technocratic stability over genuine democratic diversity,” Spinck warned.