CHIȘINĂU, Moldova — EU leaders must take action to ensure Moldova — and neighboring Ukraine — can become fully-fledged members of the bloc despite Hungary’s objections, the country’s accession chief urged on Monday.

Speaking to POLITICO after the governing, pro-EU Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) secured a renewed parliamentary majority overnight, Deputy Prime Minister Cristina Gherasimov said the clock is now ticking to deliver on a pledge to join the EU by 2030.

“What we’ve seen in these elections is that Moldova again has hope for a European future, and also that we trust the EU,” said Gherasimov. “And now it’s the EU’s turn to reciprocate. It’s the EU’s credibility in Moldova, a country that chose [Europe] over and over, again in the last elections.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen took to X on Monday to show her support for the result, telling Moldova “you’ve done it again.”

“You made your choice clear: Europe. Democracy. Freedom. Our door is open. And we will stand with you every step of the way,” she wrote.

Moldova’s application is twinned with Ukraine’s, and Kremlin-friendly Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has repeatedly vowed to block Ukraine joining the union. As the opening of negotiations requires unanimous support from EU countries, this has created an impasse that top European leaders and officials are working to try and circumvent.

The question of EU membership was firmly on the ballot paper in Sunday’s nationwide poll. PAS secured more than 50 percent of the vote after campaigning primarily on the issue against the pro-Russian Patriotic Bloc, which won 24 percent. The election was subject to “unprecedented” levels of Russian interference designed to derail Moldova’s pro-EU path, officials warned, with documented evidence of disinformation and vote-buying attempts.

Gherasimov said other countries could learn from the unity on display, arguing that what makes the EU “strong and a global player” is the “unity of the 27 member states. And the moment when one of the member states hesitates, then the whole union suffers around it.”

Earlier Monday, POLITICO reported that European Council President António Costa is sounding out capitals to try and garner support for a rule change that would allow negotiating ‘clusters’ to be opened by a qualified majority vote of countries. While unanimous support would still be needed to green-light final accession, Costa’s plan would avoid costly delays to the process.

“For us, it’s important for a solution to be found regardless of what it looks like at this point,” said Gherasimov. “We very much hope there will be sufficient unity for a decision to unblock the situation and to move forward with the opening of the new clusters.”

Orbán is due to face parliamentary elections of his own in April next year, and is trailing in the polls behind center-right opposition party Tisza. While a change of government could see Budapest’s veto dropped, there are concerns that sufficient progress of key reforms would have to be made in the meantime for the enlargement process to move ahead.

“We do hope that the EU will reciprocate, considering the results of the elections,” said Gherasimov, “because in order to use this historical momentum that we are in on enlargement, we need to move fast.”