CHISINAU (Reuters) – Moldova faces a harsh winter but will overcome the challenge, President Maia Sandu said at the inauguration for her second term on Tuesday.
Sandu, who won a closely contested election in November, faces a potential energy crisis as the threat of Russia cutting off gas supply to the small eastern European nation looms.
“A harsh winter is no secret. But, dear people, we will get through it,” said Sandu at the inauguration ceremony in the capital, Chisinau.
“We’ve been blackmailed with gas and now with darkness — it’s not the first time. But light will prevail; we will prevail.”
In her first term, Sandu pivoted Moldova towards the European Union and NATO and away from Moscow, which ruled the country during the Soviet era.
Russia is expected to cut off gas supplies to Moldova and its breakaway Russia-backed Transnistria region from Jan. 1, when the existing supply contract expires. Chisinau declared a state of emergency earlier this month as a result.
Sandu, who has consistently pushed for Moldova’s entry into the EU, won her second term with a narrower margin than her first electoral victory in 2020.
This time, she defeated a former prosecutor general backed by a traditionally pro-Russian party in a vote marred by allegations of election meddling by Moscow, which it denies.
The election also exposed underlying public grievances, and Sandu, who ended up with 55.33% of the overall vote, only won because of strong backing from Moldovans voting from overseas. Within the country’s borders, she lost by a narrow margin.
(Reporting by Alexander Tanas in Chisinau and Max Hunder in London. Editing by Mark Potter)
