French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk will travel to Chisinau on Wednesday for Moldova’s 34th Independence Day. Their visit is meant to celebrate the occasion and show European support for the country’s push to join the EU.
Invited by President Maia Sandu, the three leaders will join her for official statements at the Presidential Palace before addressing citizens at a public concert on Chisinau’s Great National Assembly Square.
The "Weimar Triangle" leaders aim to underline support for Moldova’s sovereignty and European path, at a time when EU capitals are weighing whether to open the first round of accession talks with Chisinau.
The grouping, formed by France, Germany and Poland in 1991 in the German city of Weimar, promotes itself as "playing a significant role as the driving force of the enlarged European Union".
The Elysée Palace said the visit will "reaffirm full support for Moldova’s security, sovereignty and European path".
French support, Russian meddling and the fight for Europe’s frontier in Moldova
Parlimentary polls
The trip comes one month before Moldova’s parliamentary elections on 28 September, amid fears of Russian interference.
Moldova’s security services have warned that Moscow is stepping up efforts to influence voters at home and abroad through disinformation, cyberattacks and the financing of disruptive protests.
Sandu, re-elected last year in a contest already marred by allegations of foreign meddling, has called the current threats "unprecedented election interference".
Russia’s efforts to sway Moldova’s politics follow last year’s referendum, when Moldovans voted narrowly in favour of joining the EU.
Romania's new president Nicușor Dan pledges to counter Russian influence
EU member states are now considering opening the first negotiating cluster for accession talks with Chisinau as early as next month – a move that could strengthen pro-EU voters but frustrate Ukraine, whose own membership bid remains blocked by Hungary’s opposition.
Opinion polls suggest Sandu’s centre-right Action and Solidarity Party is in the lead with about 39 percent support, well ahead of the pro-Russian Socialist Party PSRM on just under 15 percent.
Macron has already condemned what he described earlier this year as Russia’s "increasingly uninhibited" attempts to destabilise Moldova and its democratic institutions.
Romanian President Nicușor Dan is also due in Chisinau on 31 August for Romanian Language Day, in another sign of regional backing for Moldova’s European ambitions.
(with newswires)
