Moldova: Prime Minister Munteanu resigns

Moldova: Prime Minister Munteanu resigns July 3, 2026The Prime Minister of Moldova announced his resignation on Friday in a surprise move which also triggers the collapse of his cabinet. Alexandru Munteanu, who was appointed by President Maia Sandu in November 2025 following the victory of her pro-European Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) in parliamentary elections, gave no full explanation for his decision. "Today I end my term as prime minister," the 62-year-old said in a statement published on social media. "I accepted the proposal to be prime minister with a lot of responsibility and strong conviction that I could contribute to changing things for the better. [But] the moment I feel I can no longer exercise my mandate in accordance with my principles and beliefs, I choose to walk away." Moldova: Why has the prime minister resigned? President Sandu accepted Munteanu's resignation and thanked him for his leadership through a "complex period" for the country, but said she expected "more involvement in complicated decisions, more openness to listening to people." She denied that Munteanu had been restricted in his work, telling reporters: "Speculation that he wanted to combat abuses but was not permitted to do so is false. The prime minister had a free hand to run the government as he saw fit." Sandu said a new prime minister could be appointed "fairly quickly" and that Munteanu would remain in interim charge while she holds consultations with parliamentary factions before appointing a candidate. "We must have a united, strong team in the government that will fulfill our country's objective," she said. "We are obliged to succeed in taking Moldova into the European Union and helping the country." Moldova: Who is ex-PM Munteanu? A political independent and novice who, like the majority of his cabinet, was not a member of President Sandu's PAS. Munteanu previously built a career as an economist outside Moldova, working at Crédit Lyonnais in Paris, France, and the World Bank in Washington, DC. He lived and worked in Ukraine for 20 years before moving to Bucharest, Romania, in the wake of the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022. A co-founder of the Moldovan branch of the Alliance Française in Chisinau, Munteanu was considered a pro-western figure and an advocate of European Union membership for Moldova, preparations for which he had aimed to achieve by 2028. "We have a unique opportunity to be the government which leads Moldova into the European Union," he had said ahead of his appointment back in November. He had also declared a desire to end the political conflict with Transnistria and reintegrate the pro-Russian, separatist region along the Ukrainian border back into Moldova, ambitions which will now fall to his successor. "I will continue to serve my country from whatever position I may find myself, irrespective of where I live or what responsibilities I may have, either in the public sector or private," he said. "I believe that duty to the country is not about a position, but about the commitment we keep." Landlocked between Ukraine to the east and EU and NATO member Romania to the west, Moldova was a Soviet republic until it proclaimed independence in 1991. In recent years, it has taken a clear westward path, turning the country into a geopolitical battleground between Russia and Europe. Edited by: Karl Sexton