Sawt Falasteen - Moldova's pro-EU president to seek second term

NYSE - LSE
RBGPF 0% 69.21 $
CMSC 0.14% 21.84 $
RELX -3.36% 35.42 $
NGG -0.53% 79.97 $
GSK -0.74% 51.69 $
RIO -0.34% 96.85 $
BP 2.21% 45.22 $
AZN -1% 169.64 $
BTI -1.71% 60.65 $
CMSD 0.41% 22.11 $
BCE -0.09% 21.68 $
RYCEF -0.67% 19.5 $
BCC 1.31% 76.38 $
VOD -2.28% 15.78 $
JRI 0.69% 12.96 $
Moldova's pro-EU president to seek second term
Moldova's pro-EU president to seek second term / Photo: JORGE GUERRERO - AFP

Moldova's pro-EU president to seek second term

Moldovan President Maia Sandu on Sunday said she would seek a second term next year as she looks to steer the former Soviet republic to EU membership.

Text size:

European Union leaders agreed earlier this month to open formal membership negotiations with Moldova and neighbouring Ukraine.

Sandu has said this opened a "new page" for the country of 2.6 million people that borders Ukraine and EU member Romania.

"We still have important steps to take and I promise to continue if you give me your confidence for a new term in 2024," she said in a post on Facebook.

She also asked parliament to "initiate the organisation of a referendum (on EU membership) next autumn, in which the voice of the citizens would be decisive".

Sandu, a 51-year-old former World Bank economist, is leading polls for the presidential vote to be held by late next year.

A poll earlier this month put her support at some 30 percent, ahead of Russia-friendly ex-president Igor Dodon at 24 percent.

Sandu defeated Dodon at the end of 2020 to become president.

Moldova's current pro-EU government has condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine and alleged that Moscow was behind a plot to try and overthrow it.

I.Yassin--SF-PST