She is the founder and former leader of the Party of Action and Solidarity and was prime minister of Moldova from 8 June 2019 until 14 November 2019, when her government collapsed after a vote of no-confidence.

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.

[26] 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.

[34] Prime Minister Pavel Filip published on his Facebook page, the minutes of the last Cabinet meeting, when the decision on granting the emergency credit for the Banca de Economii was adopted.

[44] In the 2019 parliamentary election, Sandu's PAS, together with its ally, PPDA, led by Andrei Năstase, formed the ACUM Electoral Bloc and secured 26 of the 101 seats in the Parliament of Moldova.

[50] In one of her first interviews to foreign media, she announced her intention to request that the United States Treasury add Vlad Plahotniuc to the Magnitsky List.

The decree was opposed by her coalition partner, the PSRM, with Moldova's president and ex-PSRM leader Igor Dodon announcing that he would celebrate the date in the old style, rejecting Sandu's proposal.

[57] Sandu officially launched her campaign on 2 October 2020, holding two speeches in Romanian and Russian both promising to fight corruption and poverty, and to reform the criminal justice system,[58] while accusing President Dodon of deliberately hindering the latter.

[54][55] She was congratulated on her win by senior leaders of the European Union, as well as Presidents Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine,[63] Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan,[64] Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan,[65] and Klaus Iohannis of Romania.

[78] The very next day, Sandu asked MPs to reject her proposed Prime Minister in order to speed up the process of its dissolution and early elections.

[80] The Constitutional Court of Moldova declared the decree unconstitutional, reasoning that Sandu should have accepted a proposal from 54 MPs (primarily from PSRM) to instead nominate Mariana Durleșteanu, a former Moldovan ambassador to the United Kingdom.

[85] After the consultations, Sandu announced that there was no parliamentary majority, and in order to end the political crisis, she named Igor Grosu as Prime Minister.

[86] More political figures, such as Pavel Filip and Andrian Candu claimed that Sandu had reached an agreement with Igor Dodon in order to hold early parliamentary elections.

The renewed Security Council did not include the Minister of Justice Fadei Nagacevschi, the Governor of Gagauzia Irina Vlah, or the director of the National Centre for Combating Corruption Ruslan Flocha.

They nevertheless praised efforts made under Sandu's presidency, and concluded that "the election of PAS, which ran above all on an anti-corruption platform, can be interpretated as a positive sign for this change as there is a widespread consensus among the population that corruption needs to be curbed."

[110][111] On 2 May 2022, former Moldovan Prime Minister Iurie Leanca was charged with abuse of power over a concession that gave control of the country's main airport to a businessman now in exile.

The 2013 concession handed control of Chişinău International Airport for a 49-year term to a company associated with politician and businessman Ilan Shor, who fled Moldova in 2019 after the election of pro-Western Sandu.

"Veronica Dragalin, head of Moldova's anti-corruption prosecution office, said a former economy minister and six other former officials also faced similar charges in a criminal case which she said had been referred to court.

"[121] White House National Security Minister John Kirby stated that "As Moldova continues to integrate with Europe, we believe Russia is pursuing options to weaken the Moldovan government probably with the eventual goal of seeing a more Russian- friendly administration in the capital".

[122] On 19 June 2023, the pro-Russian Șor Party was banned by the Constitutional Court of Moldova after months of anti-government protests, which the Moldovan government said was an attempt to destabilize it.

"[124] The party was led by Ilan Shor, a fugitive businessman who fled to Israel in 2019 after being convicted of fraud and money-laundering and sentenced to 15 years in prison in absentia.

She highlighted that "For the Republic of Moldova, climate change means severe droughts every few years, floods, ruined crops and livelihoods of people.

[132] After the outbreak of the 2022 Russian invasion in Ukraine, Sandu signed the application for EU membership on 3 March 2022, together with Igor Grosu, the president of the Moldovan parliament, and Natalia Gavrilița, the country's prime minister.

Sandu attributed the result to an "unprecedented assault on our country's freedom and democracy" following allegations of interference by "criminal groups" and pro-Russian interests.

[135] As part of the Moldovan–Romanian collaboration during the COVID-19 pandemic, Iohannis promised that Romania would aid Moldova with medicines, medical and sanitary protection equipment and 200,000 vaccine units.

[141] During her visit on 12 January, she met with President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, where they agreed to create a Presidential Council to address issues of bilateral relations.

[146] Shortly after President Sandu condemned the act of war by Russia against Ukraine, saying, "a blatant breach of international law and of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity.

[150] On 11 August 2021,[151] Sandu, alongside other officials, met with Dmitry Kozak, the Deputy Kremlin Chief of Staff, where they agreed to lift all economic barriers between the two nations and look into the removal of ammunition depots from Transnistria.

[152][153] In February 2023, Sandu stated that Moscow had sought to overthrow her country's government, echoing accusations made by Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

[156] She further explained that the Transnistria conflict was an artificial problem created in order to stop Moldova from gaining its independence and that other former Soviet countries experienced the same thing.