The Duran Podcast - Moldova RAZOR THIN Sandu win exposes EU unpopularity

Episode Date: September 29, 2025

Moldova RAZOR THIN Sandu win exposes EU unpopularity

All right, Alexander, let's talk about the elections in Moldova, which should not surprise anyone the results of those elections. It was obvious that the EU was going to do whatever they had to do in order to make sure that Sandus Party won the parliament elections, and it does look like they barely, barely got a majority in the parliament. But it was going to happen. There was no way they were going to allow the opposition parties to win. So they pulled out all the, all the stops, all the tricks. And they got Sandu over the finish line. But the story is that with all of the EU help, all of the West, US, NATO, EU, whatever, all of the help and everything that they did in order to prevent the opposition from winning and to help Sandu take these elections. She's still barely, barely won, barely.

I think that says a lot. She's hanging on by a very, very thin thread. Absolutely. Now, you would just add that if the election results had by any possible chance gone the other way, let's say her party has just fallen short of getting an outright majority. And by the way, she has got no coalition partners in the parliament now because she's so basically wildly unpopular. But had she fallen short, I have absolutely no doubt that the election would have been annulled. We had even Sandu herself refusing to exclude that possibility in an interview

before the election. So every stop was pulled to avoid that eventuality. But even if the result had been different, we would still have ended up, I think, in a situation where Sandou remained president and her party remained in overall control. I think we very briefly, and I think we need to touch on just a few of the things that happened because obviously we can't just say that, you know, the election was manipulated, but I mean, it was manipulated. Well, first of all, you summarized the situation absolutely correctly. They did indeed, pull out all the stops just to get her across the finishing line, which is to give her a party an overall majority, just a very thin, way for thin, overall majority in the Parliament.

But I think it's important to say that given the approach that they were taking to the election, if the result had been the other way, if she'd just fallen short, of a majority. If the other parties, and all of the other parties, by the way, are to a greater extent or lesser extent now working together against her, if the other parties had got the majority instead, as night follows day, they would have annulled the elections. I was watching an interview that she gave before the elections, before the counting began. And I noticed that she refused to rule out the possibility that the election result could be annulled. And of course, it would have been all the usual stories that the Russians were interfering in the elections, that Russian money was flowing

and circulating around, that the Russians were buying up Orthodox priests to get them to speak out against the government and the government party, a preposterous claim, by the way, repeated by Reuters for which there is no evidence at all. And to be clear, Moldovan Orthodox priests have every reason not to be great fans of Maria Zandu or of the government that she's leading. So I mean, they wouldn't need to be bribed in that kind of way to make perhaps fairly well known that they did, they don't really support her very much. But, yeah, they would have come up with some reason, some excuse, and we can always guess what that. that reason was the Russian interference, corruption. What happened in neighboring Romania to cancel the results of an election that they were never going to let the other side win? And I think it's perhaps worth saying some of the things they did because the Moldovan diaspora in Russia, very big, half a million people apparently, barely allowed to vote. Only 4,000 people there were able to vote. Just two polling stations set up across Russia, something like, I believe, over 100 or more set out across Europe.

A major attempt to organize the Moldovan diaspora in the EU to vote and to vote for Sandus party. and also attempts to prevent voting in the breakaway. We don't breakaway. I mean, the autonomous region of Transnistria, people wanted to vote there. But again, it was major obstacles were put in their way. Turn out apparently in Transnistria extremely low. Turnout in Galgasia, extremely low. And even then, despite all of that, she only managed.

as you said, to get a very way for thin majority. And as I understand it, fell just short of getting a majority of the votes within Moldova itself. The only reason, even with all of these manipulations, that she was able to win the majority, was because of the votes of the diaspora in Europe. If the Russian diaspora had voted, she would be out of power. If Transnistria and Golgazia had voted, she would be out of power. Even then, the only place where one can say that she convincingly retains apparent support is in the capital itself, Kisjinov, and the capital, as is often the way,

is a place where the Moldovan middle class, pro-EU middle class, is concentrated, and whether the higher education institutions and those sort of things. And in every East European country, that is where you would find pro-EU sentiment strongest. So that's a summary of the election. The extraordinary big question is why? Why has the EU come toward this trouble? Moldova, a small country, population 2.34 million. By comparison, just to give an example, Donetsk region in Ukraine, has a population or had a population before the war of more than 4 million. So small country, very poor. Outside Gisinau, again, it's basically been in continuous economic decline ever since the Soviet Union collapsed.

It hardly carries any huge political weight. There's many people who say that the loss of Moldova would have had an effect on the outcome of the war in Ukraine. hardly. I mean, whatever happens in Moldova, it's not going to affect the operations of the Russian army. The reason is, as far as I'm concerned, that the EU has now worked itself up to that point where he simply will not tolerate the opposition winning anywhere within its sphere of influence. Slovakia, probably the last place that they would allow to slip away. Apparently all the usual methods are going to be used in the Czech Republic, now a much more important place, but to prevent the former prime minister, Mr. Babish and his party winning there.

But they will not tolerate, they will not accept anywhere in any part of Europe, now a political challenge. And we've just seen this in Germany again. Merrill election in Ludwigshafen, representative of the IFDA, prevented from standing, banned. Apparently, I mean, one of the things that caused him to be banned is that he expressed an appreciation for J.R.R. Tolkeed's Lord at the Rings.

I'm in extraordinary stuff. But anyway, the EU is now so insecure, so fearful, of political challenge, that it will not allow any movement, any rebellion against itself, anywhere within the Union or in places aligned with the Union just outside. Yeah, because the EU is extremely unpopular. They're unpopular. They're incompetent. And everyone sees that they're completely incompetent.

And they're going to make sure that they do everything to stay in power. the the the the the russian meddling uh excuse is going to become anything in in the future i mean j r hartol i mean okay lord of the riggs we don't like this candidate because uh lord of the rings is meddling in in the elections right i mean the the the russian meddling thing is going to turn into whatever they they wanted to turn into going forward as long as they make sure that they retain control of uh of the member states that's that's what it's all about. And they have to do these kinds of things because because the core of Brussels is filled with incompetent officials, unpopular, incompetent officials, which is exactly what Maya Sandu is.

I mean, you listen to her speak. You can't help but understand that this person is so undynamic, so incompetent, so uninspiration. I mean, it's obvious. How did this person end up running a country, even the size of Moldova? I don't think she could run a lemonade stand with one employee or two employees. I mean, you listen to her and you understand that this is not a leader. This is not a president. This is not a prime minister. These are administrators. This is the future of Europe and the European Union. It's just a bunch of governors or administrators placed in the member state countries who will just. look after things on a local level. While everything is run in Brussels, the incompetence of Brussels is what's going to be running everything into the ground. And we'll see how long this goes. I entirely agree with all of that, except I would add something else, which is that they're also, they're not just administrators, they're incompetent administrators. I mean, if people always make this comparison with the Soviet Union, but some of the regional parties.

secretaries, are actually quite able people in the Soviet Union. I mean, they could actually administer things. They could make sure, you know, that deliveries from one place actually arrived at another place. This bunch aren't even able to do that. I mean, look at Europe today and find me anywhere one really capable and competent government or official. I mean, They just don't exist. I mean, people talk about Maloney, but I think Maloney's coasting mostly. People talk about Sanchez in Spain. I know many people in Spain who do not, would not agree with any view that Sanchez is a particularly able person in Spain.

Mertz, Macro, best not talk about them too much because we've seen what they're really like. So it is this system, the one thing it is good at, is control. And that is now all it's about anymore. It really isn't about anything else. It's about maintaining a tight grip and not allowing any opposition to appear anywhere. We saw that in Romania last year where the election was cancelled. The election, as I said, in Moldova might have been cancelled also if it had gone as well might have done, you know, could have done that things that been organized fully properly, if there'd been a few polling stations opened in Galgasia or something like that.

If it had gone the other way, they would have cancelled it. And we are going to see the grip continuously tighten. But it's an incompetent grip because that's all it knows how to do. Everything else running industries, developing agriculture, organizing a proper financial system. organizing a proper judicial system, sweeping the roads, keeping the buildings clean, looking after health policy. None of these things does it know how to do? And you're absolutely right. Russian interference is now that extraordinary. Catch all excuse any election, any political leader, any person who stands out and speaks out about anything, be it an orthodox priest,

rural Moldova or a trade unionist in Einlanfals or a businessman in the Czech Republic or in Italy, anybody who speaks out and pushes back against all of this. You say, well, you know, the Russians are behind this person. There's obviously secret money and mysterious contacts flowing around. And, you know, you could create all kinds of fake scandals like they did with, you know, a few years ago in Austria where they threw them. Arrange the meeting with a Yugoslav model and discredited an entire party on that basis. But trying to make out that this person was some kind of Russian oligarchal. Like a Lithuanian model or something.

It was that. Yeah. It was weird. Yeah. It was all that. I mean, you know, the, but this is, this is. this is what the politics of Europe has now become. I mean, once upon a time we had leaders in Europe.

We had Napoleon and Bismarck and Louis Ith and Henry the 8th and people of that guy, you know, Titanic figures not so long ago. We had Margaret Thatcher and Helmut Schmidt and Vili Brandt and Charles de Gaulle and all of those people. But now we are reduced to the kind of politics that we now see. Yeah, they're good at control because they have the United States and the UK Intel services behind them. They have the US machine of the information media machine and the machine that is really good at controlling things and creating intrigues and color revolutions and regime changes.

So they have that in back of them. And then they have the UK Intel services as well, which are really good at all these. all these mischips and all this kinds of stuff. So, I mean, that's what props up the European Union, right? Without the United States, the EU is not even going to last a week. I don't think it would last a day without the United States. Honestly, I think it would crumble. If the U.S. pulled out today, I think tomorrow the European Union would completely crumble.

It's the United States that completely holds up the European Union. And it holds up all of the mechanisms of the European Union. It's taught. It's taught all of its know-how has been passed on. to the European Union. It's know-how for information war, for media misinformation, for election meddling, for regime changes, for color revolutions, think tanks, NGOs. It's all from the U.S. The whole thing. You're completely right. You're absolutely correct. And you're right. I mean, the British

and have some skills in this area, the Americans have many more. The Americans have much more money, of course, to bring to bear. But of course, can I just make a point of Obviously, a massive diversion, maladministration of resources. Notice that the US intelligence community has become not so good at the work of actual intelligence. Why? Because it is instead focused on doing all of these things. Propping up the machinery of the EU in Europe. I mean, the amount of time and energy and resources and mental energy that must be expended by the United States in keeping this show on the road is extraordinary.

And, well, one wonders when the day will come when the Americans realize that there is really no point to it. Never, never. The EU is going to bring down the United States or vice versa. I think it's inevitable. For some reason, they can't separate from each other. Even Trump aligns himself with this bunch, which is pretty sad and pathetic, actually, that the Trump administration has decided to align themselves with this bunch. But hey, whatever, whatever you want, man, his choice. I agree. So, Sandu Moldova, a second front?

Possibly. But, you know, we shouldn't overstate the importance of this, because let's assume there is a second front and the Ukrainian army enters Transnistria. I mean, this will obviously be a crisis, and one that we will cover. But ultimately, the war in Ukraine is going to be fought and won in Transnistria. It's going to be fought and run on the NEPA. And the Russians are advancing steadily towards the NEPA. We've discussed this in many programs. There's been more military developments then. We've had massive missile and drone strikes across Ukraine. This is a complete side show. In my, a program I did about the elections in Moldova, I talked about how

in October 1944, the Germans who were, you know, going down fast, nonetheless organized a regime change operation in Hungary. And of course, within six months, they'd lost the war. You know, we might have another clash, something like that happened in Transnistria, in Moldova, but it's not going to make any difference to the outcome of the war. To repeat again, Moldova, and I, you know, my heart, by the way, bleeds at this guy. I'm really, really sorry for these unfortunate, unhappy people who need a good government, which probably they would want to elect, and if it was there, that could actually focus on Moldova. rather than what Maria Sandu does, which is run everything around, you know, the geopolitics and Russia and all of that.

But Moldova as a political weight in the scales cannot count for very much because it is so small. 2.3 million people. an economy that is basically broken in Soviet times. It produced red wine, which the Soviet leaders apparently appreciated, and it was known for its very productive agriculture. But I understand that even that is not in particularly good shape today. So, I mean, this is not a place which really matters. in the great scale of things.

The people it matters to are the people of Moldova who deserve to be left alone so that they can sort out their lives and sort out Moldova. I mean, this is the cruelty of these kind of games. Yeah, but the EU and the West doesn't care.

Oh, no, I mean, what is that? Care about the people? Is it the last thing? Absolutely. They need to keep expanding. Absolutely. I mean, you know, there's values and all of that. Yeah.

And promoting EU values. That's the real thing. So, you know, they failed in, they failed in Slovakia, you know, a year plus ago. They failed in Georgia's and how they're going to have to hold on. It's important to cling on to Voldover. And as I said, inflict more pain and economic distress on the people and perhaps open up the possibilities of war there and destabilization, all of that, and for what in the end? Because you've got to keep, as you said, this show, this EU show on the road,

show that you're still always expanding on the people everywhere support your values, whatever those are. No one knows. No one has any clue. To cancel elections, to meddle in elections, I guess, I don't know, to free. These frozen assets. Freezing frozen assets, that's the EU values. Anyway, we'll end the video there. The durand.com.

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