Victoria Furtună

Victoria Furtună (born 24 February 1981) is a Moldovan politician and former prosecutor. She worked as a prosecutor for 18 years, having been involved in numerous high-profile cases and having been considered for the position of acting Prosecutor General of Moldova in 2021. Furtună resigned amid a major scandal with the judicial system in March 2024 and announced four months later that she would run as an independent candidate at the 2024 Moldovan presidential election, in which she placed fifth with 4.45% of the votes. Afterwards, Furtună became on 2 March 2025 the leader of the Greater Moldova Party (PMM), which was excluded from the 2025 parliamentary election due to suspicions of illegal foreign funding, connections to Moldovan pro-Russian fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor and the promotion of the interests of a foreign state.

Furtună promoted a populist, anti-system, anti-Western and irredentist discourse and expressed her opposition of then President of Moldova Maia Sandu, promoting the "Moldovan language" and the neutrality of Moldova and maintaining a high presence in social media for her campaigning. She also expressed opposition to Moldova's accession to the European Union (EU) before U-turning on this stance after taking leadership of the PMM. Furtună was alleged to have held contact and received support from Shor and his group, particularly during her 2024 presidential campaign, and she was subject to sanctions in Moldova, the EU, Switzerland, Canada and Ukraine over her alleged connections with him and with Russian influence activities in Moldova.