In early September 2025, claims that Moldovan President Maia Sandu was allegedly suffering from schizophrenia were widely circulated on Georgian- and Russian-language Facebook accounts. According to these posts, information about the president’s mental health supposedly became known based on documents that allegedly “leaked” from the Moldovan parliament in October 2024. The documents purportedly confirm that Sandu is being treated at the Döbling Clinic in Austria and has been prescribed the drug aripiprazole. Most of the posts refer to an article on the website Head-Post.com, and some include photos of a document bearing the name of the clinic, the medication, and Sandu’s signature. The fake was debunked by experts from the Georgian fact-checking portal MythDetector.

In reality, these documents are forged and do not originate from the Döbling Clinic. They contain linguistic and factual errors. In June 2023, when Sandu was allegedly undergoing treatment in Austria, she was in fact holding official public meetings in Moldova. Such disinformation claims about the president’s mental health, spread during the pre-election period, are aimed at discrediting her.

The spread of disinformation about Maia Sandu’s mental health

The main source of the fake is an article published on the website Head-Post.com on August 27, 2025. It contains German-language documents that allegedly indicate that Sandu underwent electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) at the private Austrian Döbling Clinic in June 2023. The article claims that this method is considered safe for treating mental disorders and is used when other treatments are ineffective. The documents also allegedly point to aripiprazole being prescribed for the treatment of schizophrenia.

Lithuanian outlet Delfi, which specializes in debunking fakes, notes that in June 2023 Maia Sandu had a series of official meetings in Moldova, as confirmed by photographs and official statements. This contradicts claims that she was staying at the clinic.

In addition, the documents contain linguistic errors that indicate forgery. For example, they use the incorrect term “Elektrokonvulsieve therapie”, whereas the correct German terms are “Elektrokonvulsionstherapie” or “Elektrokrampftherapie”. The abbreviation in the document is given as ETC, although EKT or ECT is used in international and German practice. Such distortions further raise doubts about the documents’ authenticity.

This is not the first time a fake claim about Maia Sandu having schizophrenia has circulated. A similar false story, alleging that the president was treated at the same Austrian clinic in 2021, was spread by Kremlin-linked media and on social networks in 2024. At the time, the information was checked by Ukrainian fact-checkers from Gwara Media, who found grammatical errors and inconsistencies in the documents.

Reasons for discrediting Maia Sandu

In the Facebook posts analyzed by Georgian fact-checkers, it is claimed that Sandu can no longer perform her presidential duties, and references are made to a constitutional mechanism for removing a president from office due to health issues. In addition, the fakes suggest that her alleged health problems are being used to “control her from the outside”.

The spread of this disinformation is linked to Moldova’s parliamentary elections scheduled for September 28, 2025. Claims that Sandu is unable to fulfill her duties due to health reasons are used to discredit her ahead of the vote.

This fake is part of a broader disinformation campaign aimed at undermining trust in Moldova’s pro-European leader.