Maia Sandu (; born 24 May 1972) is a Moldovan politician and economist who, since 2020, has served as the sixth president of Moldova. She is the founder and former leader of the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) and was prime minister of Moldova from June to November 2019, when her 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 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 widely 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.
Sandu was re-elected president in the 2024 Moldovan presidential election following an electoral campaign defined by geopolitical issues, such as the referendum on amending the constitution to include the desire for EU membership, as well as an unprecedented level of Russian electoral interference.
Early life and career Sandu was born on 24 May 1972, in the commune of Risipeni, located in the Fălești District of the Moldavian SSR, which was part of the USSR at the time. Her parents were Grigore and Emilia Sandu, a doctor and a teacher, respectively. Her father died before she became involved in politics. From 1988 to 1994, she majored in management at the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldavia/Moldova (ASEM). From 1995 to 1998, she majored in international relations at the (AAP) in Chișinău. In 2010, she was awarded a Master's degree in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. From 2010 to 2012, Sandu served as an adviser to the Executive Director at the World Bank.
Political career
From 2012 to 2015, Sandu served as Minister of Education of Moldova. She was considered on 23 July 2015 by the Liberal Democratic Party as a nominee to serve as the next Moldovan Prime Minister, succeeding Natalia Gherman and Chiril Gaburici.
A day after being proposed by a renewed pro-European coalition, Sandu set the departure of the Head of the National Bank of Moldova, Dorin Drăguțanu, and the State Prosecutor Corneliu Gurin as conditions for her acceptance of the office. Ultimately, Valeriu Streleț was nominated over Sandu by the president of Moldova.
On 23 December 2015, she launched a platform "În /pas/ cu Maia Sandu" ("In step with Maia Sandu") that later became a political party called Party of Action and Solidarity ().
In 2016, Sandu was the pro-European candidate in the Moldovan presidential election. She was selected as the joint candidate of the pro-European PPDA and PAS parties for president of Moldova in the 2016 election. Running on a pro-EU action platform, she was one of the two candidates who managed to reach the runoff of the election. Sandu faced a significant amount of discrimination during the race, including being a target of insults and harassment for being a single woman, as well as being openly attacked by former Moldovan president Vladimir Voronin, who accused her of betraying "family values", alongside describing her as "a laughingstock, a sin, and a national disgrace of Moldova" in remarks that were widely considered as profoundly misogynistic. She rejected the insults in an interview, replying that "I never thought being a single woman is a shame. Maybe it is a sin even to be a woman?" Eventually, Sandu was defeated in the subsequent runoff by the pro-Russian PSRM candidate, Igor Dodon, losing the popular vote by a margin of 48% to 52%.
As of December 2022, Sandu ranks as the most trusted politician in Moldova, polling at 26%, with Igor Dodon following behind at 19%. According to the 2019 opinion polls conducted by Public Opinion Fund, Sandu was ranked as the second most trusted political personality in the country, polling at 24%, closely following Igor Dodon, who polled at 26%, while older polls that year placed her lower, in sixth place.
Controversies
In September 2016, Sandu instituted proceedings against the State Chancellery, demanding that she be given an insight into the minutes of the Cabinet meeting at which the state guarantees for the three bankrupt banks (the Bank of Savings (), Unibank, and the Banca Socială) had been approved. Prime Minister Pavel Filip published on his Facebook page the minutes of the last Cabinet meeting, at the time when the decision on granting the emergency credit to Banca de Economii was adopted. The minutes included the speeches of former Governor of NBM, Dorin Drăguțanu, former Prime Minister Chiril Gaburici, and Sandu's own speeches (from the time when she served as Moldova's minister of education). It is mentioned that, in the end, the decision was voted on unanimously. The minutes were not signed.
Regarding the former leader of Romania, Ion Antonescu, Sandu remarked in 2018 that he was "a historical figure about whom we may say both good and bad things." Her statements were sharply criticised by the Jewish Community of Moldova (CERM). Sandu replied to this in later interviews by stating: "I regret that my words about the dictator Ion Antonescu were made an object of interpretation. [...] Antonescu was a war criminal, rightly condemned by the international community for war crimes against Jewish and Roma people."
On 21 February 2019, Sandu and the candidates of the ACUM electoral bloc, both of the national and uninominal constituency, signed a public commitment according to which, after the Parliamentary elections of 24 February 2019, they would not make any coalition with the Party of Socialists, Democratic Party and Shor Party, while if this commitment were violated they would resign as MPs. She violated this self-imposed commitment after agreeing to form a coalition government along with the Party of Socialists in early June 2019 as the only way forward to create a legitimate and democratic government.
As Prime Minister
In the 2019 parliamentary election, Sandu's PAS, together with its ally, PPDA, led by Andrei Năstase, formed the ACUM Electoral Bloc and secured 26 of the 101 seats in the Parliament of Moldova. On 8 June 2019, Sandu was elected Prime Minister of Moldova in a coalition government with PSRM. On the same day, the Constitutional Court of Moldova declared unconstitutional her designation for this position as well as the appointment of the Government of the Republic of Moldova, which sparked the 2019 constitutional crisis. However, on 15 June 2019, the Constitutional Court revised and repealed its previous decisions, declaring the Sandu Cabinet to have been constitutionally created.
The next day, she called for the restoration of public order, discouraging citizens from attending local rallies. In June 2019, she lifted a March 2017 ban by former Prime Minister Filip on official visits by government officials to Russia. In one of her first interviews with foreign media, she announced her intention to request that the United States Treasury add Vlad Plahotniuc to the Magnitsky List. In August, Sandu requested that the State Chancellery prepare a draft decree, which would officially declare 23 August as the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism, instead of the regular Liberation Day. The decree was opposed by her coalition partner, the PSRM, with Moldova's president and ex-PSRM leader Igor Dodon announcing that he would celebrate the date in the old style, rejecting Sandu's proposal.
Under Sandu, Moldova began taking steps towards the European Union, as Sandu herself is pro-EU. Sandu was ousted as prime minister on 12 November 2019, following a vote of no confidence. She remained as a caretaker of the office until the formation of a new government. However, on 24 December 2020, Sandu took office as state president, after winning a landslide election against the pro-Russian Igor Dodon, and again on a pro-EU and anti-corruption platform. Under Sandu's leadership, Moldova is once more in a position to resume moving forward towards European integration.
2020 presidential campaign
Sandu announced her candidacy for the 2020 presidential election on 18 July, declaring that a joint pro-European candidate would not be required as there was no risk of there being no pro-European candidates in the second round. Sandu officially launched her campaign on 2 October 2020, giving two speeches in Romanian and Russian, both times promising to fight corruption and poverty, alongside reforming the country's criminal justice system, while accusing President Dodon of deliberately hindering the latter. Considering that no candidate received a majority of votes in the first round of the election, a run-off between Sandu and Dodon was held on 15 November, in which Sandu won with 57.75% of the popular vote.
She was congratulated on her win by senior leaders of the European Union, as well as Presidents Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan, Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, and Klaus Iohannis of Romania. In her press conference, she declared that Moldova under her leadership "will secure real balance in the foreign policy, being guided by Moldova's national interests, we will have a pragmatic dialogue with all the countries, including Romania, Ukraine, European nations, Russia, and the United States."
2024 presidential campaign
Launching her re-election campaign, Sandu condemned Russia's war in Ukraine as a threat to regional stability and Moldova's sovereignty. She identified both Russia and corruption as the biggest challenges facing Moldova, emphasizing that addressing these issues is crucial for Moldova's security and its aspirations for closer integration with the European Union. In the presidential debate, Sandu accused her main opponent, Alexandr Stoianoglo of the PSRM, of being a "Trojan horse" candidate for outside interests wanting control of Moldova. She said she would continue her pro-European course, saying, "Joining the European Union is Moldova's Marshall Plan". After winning a plurality of the vote in the first round, Sandu won the second round over Stoianoglo with 55.35% of the vote. Sandu declared in her victory speech; "Moldova, you are victorious! Today, dear Moldovans, you have given a lesson in democracy, worthy of being written in history books. Today, you have saved Moldova."
The 2024 Moldovan European Union membership constitutional referendum was held on the same day as the first round in the presidential election. Sandu actively campaigned for the 'Yes' vote supporting European integration, which ultimately won by a narrow margin. Sandu attributed the result of the first round and the referendum to foreign interference and described it as an "unprecedented assault on democracy", adding that her government had evidence that 150,000 votes had been bought, with an objective of 300,000. The European Union also said that the two exercises had taken place "under unprecedented interference and intimidation by Russia and its proxies".
Presidency (2020–present)