Moldova,officially the Republic of Moldova,is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe,on the northeastern corner of the Balkans. The country spans a total of 33,483 km2 and has a population of approximately 2.5 million as of January 2023. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north,east,and south. The unrecognised breakaway state of Transnistria lies across the Dniester river on the country's eastern border with Ukraine. Moldova is a unitary parliamentary representative democratic republic with its capital in Chișinău,the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre.
Moldovan,also known historically as Moldavian,is one of the two local names for the Romanian language in Moldova. Moldovan was declared the official language of Moldova in Article 13 of the constitution adopted in 1994,while the 1991 Declaration of Independence of Moldova used the name Romanian. In 2003,the Moldovan parliament adopted a law defining Moldovan and Romanian as glottonyms for the same language. In 2013,the Constitutional Court of Moldova interpreted that Article 13 of the constitution is superseded by the Declaration of Independence,thus giving official status to the name Romanian. The breakaway region of Transnistria continues to recognize Moldovan as one of its official languages,alongside Russian and Ukrainian. Ukraine also continues to make a distinction between Moldovan and Romanian,with one village declaring its language to be Romanian and another declaring it to be Moldovan,though Ukrainian officials have announced an intention to remove the legal status of Moldovan. On 16 March 2023,the Moldovan Parliament approved a law on referring to the national language as Romanian in all legislative texts and the constitution. On 22 March,the president of Moldova,Maia Sandu,promulgated the law.
Vladimir Voronin is a Moldovan politician. He was the third president of Moldova from 2001 until 2009 and has been the First Secretary of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM) since 1994. He was Europe's first democratically elected communist party head of state after the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc.
Klaus Iohannis,sometimes briefly referred to as KWI in the Romanian press,is a Romanian politician,physicist,and former physics teacher who has been serving as the president of Romania since 2014. He became the president of the National Liberal Party (PNL) in 2014,after previously serving as the leader of the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania (FDGR/DFDR) between 2002 and 2013. Prior to entering national politics,he was a physics teacher at the Samuel von Brukenthal National College in his native Sibiu.
The European Social Democratic Party is a centre-left,populist social-democratic political party in Moldova. Established in 1997,the party holds pro-European views,and is an associate member of the Party of European Socialists (PES) and a full member of the Socialist International. According to its statute,the PSDE pleads that Moldova is an independent,sovereign,and democratic state,based on law,and integrated in the united family of European democracies. Reflecting former leader Marian Lupu's views,but also the strong influence of the Moldovan Orthodox Church,the party is more conservative on social issues,such as LGBT rights.
The ȘOR Party was a populist political party in Moldova. Known from its foundation in 1998 until October 2016 as the Socio-Political Movement "Equality",the party held Eurosceptic and Russophilic stances.
The Parliament of Moldova is the supreme representative body of the Republic of Moldova,the only state legislative authority,being a unicameral structure composed of 101 elected MPs on lists,for a period or legislature of 4 years. The Parliament of Moldova is elected by universal vote,equal directly,secret and freely expressed. The president of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova is elected by the Parliament,with a minimum of 52 votes.
The unification of Moldova and Romania is a popular concept in the two countries that began during the Revolutions of 1989. The Romanian Revolution in 1989 and the independence of Moldova in 1991 further contributed to the development of a movement for the unification of the two Romanian-speaking countries. The question of reunification is recurrent in the public sphere of the two countries,often as a speculation,both as a goal and a danger. Though historically Romanian support for unification was high,a 2022 survey during the Russian invasion of Ukraine indicated that only 11% of Romania's population supports an immediate union,while over 42% think it is not the moment.
Relations between the European Union (EU) and Moldova are currently shaped via the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP),an EU foreign policy instrument dealing with countries bordering its member states.
Moldova–Russia relations are the bilateral relations between the Republic of Moldova and the Russian Federation,two Eastern European,post-Soviet,ex-communist countries. Russian support for the self-proclaimed Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (Transnistria) and a substantial Russian military presence therein strained Moldovan relations with Russia.
Igor Dodon is a Moldovan politician who previously served as the President of Moldova from 23 December 2016 to 24 December 2020. He currently serves as the leader of the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova. He served as minister of trade and economics in the governments of Vasile Tarlev and Zinaida Greceanîi from September 2006 to September 2009 and was a member of the Parliament of Moldova from 2009 to 2016. He lost his bid for re-election in 2020 to Maia Sandu in a rematch whom he had defeated four years earlier in 2016.
Maia Sandu is a Moldovan politician who has been the President of Moldova since 24 December 2020. She is the founder and former leader of the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) and former Prime Minister of Moldova from 8 June 2019 until 14 November 2019,when the government collapsed after a vote of no-confidence. Sandu was Minister of Education from 2012 to 2015 and member of the Parliament of Moldova from 2014 to 2015,and again in 2019. Sandu was elected President of Moldova in a landslide victory during the 2020 Moldovan presidential election. The first female president of Moldova,Sandu is a strong supporter of the accession of Moldova to the European Union,overseeing Moldova's granting of candidate status,and is considered 'pro-Western'. She has criticised and opposed Russia's invasion of Ukraine and supported subsequent steps to reduce Moldova's economic dependence on Russia,frequently expressing sympathy and support for Ukraine in the conflict. Sandu has made anti-corruption,economic reform and liberalisation a central part of her political platform,as well as closer integration with Europe. In February 2023,she accused Russia of seeking to stage a coup of the Moldovan government and has continued to seek to reduce Russia's influence over the country.
Andrian Candu is a Moldovan politician,who served as chairman of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova between 2015 and 2019. He left political life and went back to consultancy business,where previously he has built a successful career. Candu served as Deputy Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova from 30 May 2013 to 11 July 2014,Deputy Prime Minister,Minister of Economy of the Republic of Moldova from 2 July 2014 –23 January 2015,Speaker of the Parliament Of the Republic of Moldova between 23 January 2015 –24 February 2019,deputy of the PDM faction in the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova in 3 consecutive legislatures:24 December 2010 –11 July 2014,9 December 2014 - 9 March 2019,9 March 2019 –19 February 2020. On 20 February 2020,together with five Members of the Parliament,Andrian Candu formed the "PRO MOLDOVA" Parliamentary Group,which was later registered as a political party,which he chaired for 1.5 years.
Siegfried Mureșan is a Romanian economist and politician,vice-president of the European People's Party (EPP) since November 2019,vice-president of the European People's Party Group in the European Parliament and member of the National Liberal Party (PNL). He was elected as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Romania in 2014 and 2019. Previously,he was a member of the People's Movement Party (PMP) between 2014 and 2018 and the Democratic Liberal Party (PDL) before 2014.
The Party of Action and Solidarity is a liberal political party in Moldova. The PAS was founded by Maia Sandu,the former Minister of Education and the incumbent president of Moldova. A pro-European party,it is an observer of the European People's Party (EPP) and the International Democrat Union (IDU).
Snap parliamentary elections were held in Moldova on 11 July 2021. Following the resignation of Ion Chicu,the position of Prime Minister became vacant,with the Parliament being obligated to form a new government within three months. After the expiration of the constitutionally mandated period and two failed attempts to win parliamentary approval for the proposed cabinets,the Constitutional Court ruled on 15 April that the circumstances justifying a dissolution of the parliament were met. President Maia Sandu signed the decree dissolving the Parliament on 28 April and snap parliamentary elections were called on.
The Supreme Security Council (SSC) (Romanian:Consiliul Suprem de Securitate,CSS) is an advisory body to the President of Moldova (concurrently the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Moldovan Armed Forces) which aides and assists the President in the implementation of military policy and national security decisions. Its authority is vested in the Constitution of Moldova. The President is one of many permanent members of the council and chairs all of its meetings. Permanent members of the council since October 2009 have included the following:
The COVID-19 pandemic in Moldova was a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The virus was confirmed to have reached the Republic of Moldova on 7 March 2020,when a Moldovan woman who returned from Italy tested positive for the novel coronavirus. As the number of infected people started to rise during the next days,the Parliament declared a state of emergency on 17 March 2020 for the entire territory of the Republic of Moldova for a period of 60 days.
The Alliance for the Union of Romanians is a right-wing populist and nationalist political party currently active in Romania and Moldova. It was founded on 19 September 2019 ahead of the 2020 Romanian local and legislative elections. The party president is George Simion.
Natalia Gavrilița is a Moldovan economist and politician who served as prime minister of Moldova from 2021 until her resignation in February 2023 after failure to get her reform package enacted.
