Maia Sandu

Maia Sandu (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈmaja ˈsandu], born 24 May 1972) is a Moldovan politician and the current President of Moldova since 24 December 2020. She is the former leader of the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) and former Prime Minister of Moldova from 8 June 2019 until 14 November 2019. On 12 November 2019, Sandu's government collapsed after a vote of no-confidence, with 63 (deputies from PSRM and PDM) of the 101 MPs having voted on the motion submitted by the PSRM.

Sandu was Minister of Education from 2012 to 2015 and member of the Parliament of Moldova from 2014 to 2015, and again in 2019. She was selected as the joint candidate of the pro-European PPDA and PAS parties for President of Moldova in the 2016 election. However, she was defeated in the subsequent runoff by the pro-Russian PSRM candidate, Igor Dodon, losing the popular vote by a margin of 48% to 52%.

In a rematch between Dodon and Sandu in the 2020 election, she won the subsequent runoff, 58% to 42%, defeating Dodon. She is the first female president of Moldova.

Sandu was born on 24 May 1972 in the commune of Risipeni, located in the Fălești District in the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, USSR. She was born to Grigorie, a veterinarian and Emilia Sandu, a teacher. From 1989 to 1994, she majored in management at the Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova (ASEM). From 1995 to 1998, she majored in international relations at the Academy of Public Administration [ro] (AAP) in Chișinău. In 2010, she graduated from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. From 2010 to 2012, Sandu worked as Adviser to the executive director at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. Sandu speaks Russian, Spanish and English in addition to her native Romanian.

From 2012 to 2015 she served as Minister of Education of Moldova. She was considered on 23 July 2015 by the Liberal Democratic Party as a nominee to be the next Prime Minister of Moldova, succeeding Natalia Gherman and Chiril Gaburici.

Sandu at a meeting with Ovidiu Raețchi of the National Liberal Party (PNL) in Romania in January 2016

A day after being proposed by a renewed pro-European coalition, Sandu set the departure of the Head of the National Bank of Moldova, Dorin Drăguțanu and the State Prosecutor Corneliu Gurin as conditions for her acceptance of the office. Ultimately, Valeriu Streleț was nominated over Sandu by the President of Moldova.

On 23 December 2015. she launched a platform „În /pas/ cu Maia Sandu” ("In step with Maia Sandu"[citation needed]) that later became a political party called "Partidul Acțiune și Solidaritate" ("Party of Action and Solidarity").

In 2016, Sandu was the pro-European candidate in the Moldovan presidential election. Running on a pro-EU action platform, she was one of the two candidates that reached the runoff of the election.

According to some polls from 2019, Sandu ranks among the three most trusted politicians in Moldova. The most recent available poll, conducted by Public Opinion Fund, shows that Sandu is the second most trusted political personality, polling at 24%, closely following Igor Dodon, who polls at 26%. Other older polls, however, place her lower, in 6th place.