Sandu: The Presidency Is Just the First Battle I Have to Win

Maia Sandu announced she has already collected enough signatures to register for the presidential race. However, according to the head of PAS, her team uses the period until October 1 (deadline for submission of subscription lists - editor's note) "to communicate with people,"  deschide.md reported. Sandu claimed that her only opponent in this election is Igor Dodon, so she calls on all pro-European candidates to unite in the second round to win this election. Such statements were made in an interview with Agerpres. “We are in the process of collecting signatures and even though we have collected the required number of signatures, we use this period to talk to people before submitting documents and registering as a candidate,” she said. Maia Sandu stated she will conduct an honest campaign and will not attack other candidates. “The elections are held in two rounds. In the first round, we have several candidates in the pro-European segment. We will run an honest campaign. Our only opponent in these elections is Igor Dodon and I believe that the pro-European candidate entering the second round will be able to unite all pro-European forces and mobilize everyone to vote so that we win this election,” she said. When asked if there is already an agreement with the leader of the DA platform Andrei Nastase to support each other in the second round, the PAS leader noted that she had already spoken about this before. “We have always said that we will support Mr. Nastase if he reaches the second round and judging by what we observed a few days ago, Mr. Nastase said the same thing that he would support me if I reach the second round,” Sandu said. According to her, the presidency is only the first battle she has to win and as soon as she removes Igor Dodon from power, the presidency will be transformed into an institution that will become an ally of state institutions in the Republic of Moldova. “The President plays an important role in the appointing judges, the President is the only key in the Supreme Security Council. Today, we believe that corruption is also a serious security threat and through legal instruments we will help advance justice reform and build strong anti-corruption institutions. At the next stage, it is obviously necessary to clear the parliament. The current parliament is the result of elections that were neither free nor fair. They were organized by Plahotniuc in 2019 on the basis of an electoral system that allowed him to distort the will of people and move on to the next stage. We will have to find a solution to hold early parliamentary elections,” she said.