The Hate Review

Country Group: Moderate dual entrenchment

Key indicators in 2025: Contamination 3.00 / 4  ·  Impact 2.10 / 4

Over the past decades, anti-gender activity in Moldova has been driven by a stable coalition of the Moldovan Orthodox Church and pro-Russian political parties, operating in close coordination and often aligned with pro-Russian geopolitical narratives. In the early period, the Church was the dominant actor, legitimising administrative bans on Pride events and lobbying against anti-discrimination legislation. From 2016, the Socialist Party (PSRM) transformed anti-gender politics into a systematic electoral strategy — hosting the World Congress of Families, organising annual Family Marches, and conducting a sustained disinformation campaign against the Istanbul Convention. Since 2022, the movement has reframed gender equality as a Western geopolitical imposition threatening Moldovan sovereignty and Orthodox identity, a narrative now channelled through Russian-backed digital networks and fused with anti-EU messaging. Despite this pressure, the pro-European PAS government has held the line at national level; the movement’s influence has been most consequential at the local executive level and in the information space.