Leonid Litra, Senior Research Fellow at New Europe Center, Visiting Fellow at ECFR, and Gabrielė Valodskaitė, Programme Coordinator at ECFR, prepared article in which they analyze how Moldova’s 2025 parliamentary election became a model for defending democracy against Russian interference and promoting European integration.

It highlights three key lessons:

1. Pre-empting election fraud and foreign meddling through coordinated national and international actions, strict penalties for vote buying, and public awareness campaigns.
2. Creative EU communication, including cooperation with influencers, religious leaders, and local networks to counter disinformation and strengthen pro-European sentiment.
3. Delivering tangible local results—through visible, EU-funded community projects—that helped Moldovans feel the benefits of European integration.

Read more details here.