President Maia Sandu had accused Russia of using underhand tactics in attempt to sway voters Speaking at the same event, French Europe minister Benjamin Haddad says that Moldovans “gave us a great lesson in democracy” despite attempted interference with the democratic process. Asked on whether the French public would support EU enlargement, he says that “for a long time, there was a form of scepticism about enlargement in France,” but “there’s been a shift in the last few years,” as people realise that extending the bloc’s influence further to Ukraine, Moldova and western Balkans “is a geopolitical necessity.” “We all need good news, and I’m very, very happy that my people delivered the good news and demonstrated resilience in the face of very aggressive hybrid attacks. We [faced] massive disinformation campaigns, … corruption of voters, … very organised interference in the diaspora, … cyber-attacks so the entire host MD domain yesterday was closed because of that, and [yet] we have a clear result.” “Of course, the fight is not over. Of course, we are very determined to carry out the reforms with all the challenges and capacity constraints and so on. But today we celebrate.” Continue reading...