SUMMARY
Moldova declared independence from the Soviet Union on 27 August 1991. Prior to this, the country had been part of the former Soviet Union under the name MSSR (Moldovian Soviet Socialist Republic) since 1940.
The quest for independence had started at the end of the 1980s. The country was mainly populated by Romanian/Moldovan-speaking Moldovans, but there was a large Slavic Russian-speaking minority concentrated primarily in Chisinau and the so-called Dniestr region to the east of the River Dniestr. As the Moldovan language was declared the official language in 1989 and the nationalist sentiments increased, tensions between the Moldovans and the Slavs living in the east of the River Dniestr began to rise.
In the Supreme Soviet elections of 1990 the non-Communists could relatively freely compete and campaign against the Communist Party for the first time. Subsequently, the Popular Front of Moldova, which demanded democratic and national rights, including the right for Moldovans to seek reunification with Romania, gained power in the country together with its allies. Mircea Druc, a prominent Popular Front leader, became prime minister in 1990. After the elections, under constitutional arrangements, Mircea Snegur was elected president of the Republic by the members of the legislature. The parliament was divided, mainly along ethnic lines, and ethnic Moldovans held the leading positions in the government and parliament.
Moldova declared sovereignty later in 1990, establishing the precedence of Moldovan law over Soviet law.
Valeriu Muravschi succeeded Druc as prime minister in May 1991, but the factional divisions and lack of political consensus within the Supreme Soviet of Moldova, renamed Parliament of Moldova after independence, remained in place. The parliament was dissolved and new elections held in 1994.
After having become officially independent on 27 August 1991, the country held its first presidential elections later that year. The sole runner, Mircea Snegur, was subsequently elected. In favor of independence but not reunification with Romania, Snegur remained in power until 1996. Even though some problems occurred regarding the freedom of the opposition media and there were, allegedly, attempts to exclude the opposition from elections, Snegur was considered a relatively democratic leader. The president of Moldova had little power over the legislature in the 1990s, and the latter had a significantly greater effect than its counterparts in various other post-Soviet countries. Additionally, incumbents confronted difficulties controlling, not only the legislature, but also the opposition and media. Furthermore, elections were mostly free.
In early 1992, the country experienced the escalation of a separatist conflict among the Slavic Russian-speaking minority in the area east of the River Dniestr in eastern Moldova. Moderates in the legislature benefited from a popular reaction against this, and Andrei Sangheli from the Democratic Agrarian Party of Moldova was appointed prime minister in the beginning of July 1992. The new government of “national consensus” took a more moderate approach to the nationality question and distanced itself from the uncompromising position of the Popular Front. Sangheli served as a prime minister until 1997.
Petru Lucinschi followed Snegur as a president in 1997 and remained in office until 2001. Lucinschi was not able to end the institutional conflicts or concentrate political power in the country.
Moldova experienced a political reorientation in 2001 as the communists, led by Vladimir Voronin, returned to power. Simultaneously, there was a noticeable decline in pluralism in Moldova.
The Communist party lost its power again in 2009 and Moldova embarked on a pro-Europe course. A united opposition formed a coalition government— Alliance for European Integration (AEI)—consisting of four non-Communist parties in 2009. Since 2009, Moldova has had several nominally pro-European governments. Nevertheless, in November 2016, Moldova elected more pro-Russian Igor Dodon as president.
