Do we like Maia Sandu?
Our score: 7 out of 10. Decent and on the right side of democracy and women's equality, with contested media shutdowns and a quiet record on LGBTQ+ rights.
Sandu is Moldova's first woman president. She took office in late 2020 and was re-elected in November 2024, despite documented Russian efforts to interfere through manipulation and disinformation. Her whole political identity is pulling a small, poor country out of Moscow's orbit and into the EU.
The EU push is the thread through everything she does. Moldova applied in March 2022, got candidate status three months later, and the European Council agreed to open accession talks in December 2023. A 2024 referendum on EU integration was backed by a majority of voters. Her line is “We do not have the right to fail.”
The loudest stoush lately was in January 2026. She told a British podcast she would vote to unite with Romania in a referendum, while admitting her own view lacks majority support. Dodon's Socialists accused her of state treason and the Communists called it a breach of her oath, while Romanian politicians mostly said it was up to Moldovans. It is a talking point more than a policy: she said EU membership is the realistic goal she will pursue. That's the latest I could read; nothing newer turned up.
On the harm check, nothing nasty from her own mouth turned up. On LGBTQ+ people it is honestly a thin file. A fact-checker found her government neither backed nor opposed the June 2025 Chișinău Pride march and rejected a Russian lawmaker's claim that people were forced to attend. Same-sex unions are still not recognised, and the commission that handled legal gender change was disbanded in January 2023, leaving no procedure. No words from her against LGBTQ+ people turned up, but not much for them either.
On women, she called Moldova's seventh-place finish in a 2025 global gender equality ranking a reflection of progress, and promised to keep working on it. On elections, she accused Russia of planning vote buying, illicit crypto financing and disinformation, and said allies of fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor ran a vote-buying group. Authorities have shut dozens of pro-Russian outlets and Telegram channels accused of spreading disinformation. That is the asterisk: supporters see defence against a hostile state, while critics see a crackdown, and I couldn't find a neutral final word.
Her party won the September 2025 parliamentary vote with about half the ballots, a fragile majority. Igor Dodon of the pro-Russian Patriotic Bloc accused PAS of stealing the vote and said his bloc might not recognise the result. On the good side, she shared the 2025 Reinhard Mohn Prize for strengthening democracy and plans to donate her share to nonprofit projects. Democracy, she said, “thrives when people stand up for it, even in the face of adversity.”