Moldovan parliament backs new pro-EU PM amid Russian coup fears

Moldova’s parliament approved pro-Western Prime Minister Dorin Recean and his proposed Cabinet in a confidence vote Thursday.

Sixty-two lawmakers, all from the the parliamentary faction of the Action and Solidarity Party (PAS), which was founded by President Maia Sandu, voted in favor of appointing the new Cabinet.

Sandu’s party holds a comfortable majority, with 63 out of 101 seats in the Moldovan parliament. The parliamentary opposition did not vote for the new government.

Dorin Recean is a noted pro-EU figure, who replaces Natalia Gavrilița as the new head of government.

This comes almost one week after Sandu nominated Recean to keep her country on a pro-EU trajectory after the previous government fell, following months of rising Russian pressure amid the war in Ukraine.

On Monday, Sandu warned that Russia wants to stage a coup d’état in Moldova and called for heightened security measures in the country; allegations which Moscow dismissed later on.

The Moldovan government has long accused Russia — which bases soldiers in the breakaway region of Transnistria in the east — of stirring unrest in the country, including protests in the capital Chișinău, as punishment for its pro-European path.

Moldova was granted candidate status to the European Union last June, together with Ukraine.

“Together, we are ready to embark on this journey to continue advancing on the EU integration, implement all the necessary reforms & provide stability for our country,” Recean wrote on Twitter, presenting the new Cabinet.