The Parliament of Moldova voted in the first reading for a bill that would rename the state language of the country from Moldovan to Romanian. This was announced on March 2 by the press service of the legislature.
“In all legislation of the Republic of Moldova, the phrase “Romanian language” will be replaced by “Moldovan language”. The phrases “official language”, “state language” and “native language” will also be replaced,” the statement reads.
The bill was drafted by deputies of the Action and Solidarity party. 56 deputies out of 101 voted for him in the first reading.
The draft law provides, among other things, for changing the 13th article of the constitution of Moldova, which states that the state language is the Moldovan language, which functions on the basis of the Latin script.
Also, the name of the holiday “Limba noastra” (“Our language”) is subject to renaming. It will change to “Limba romyne” (“Romanian language”).
“This legislative initiative is not an ordinary initiative to change the constitution, but a technical initiative that follows from the obligation to comply with the acts of the Constitutional Court,” said one of the authors of the project, Veronica Rosca.
Earlier, on November 30, Romania called on Ukraine to recognize that the Moldovan language does not exist. This was stated in the message of the Romanian Foreign Ministry following the meeting of the head of department Bogdan Aurescu with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmitry Kuleba.
On April 28, 2022, the President of Moldova, Maia Sandu, noted that the unification of the country with Romania is possible only with the support of this initiative by the population. According to her, at present, the people do not want this or there is not the necessary number of citizens who support this goal.
In 2009, Bucharest made it easier for Moldovans to obtain citizenship. Residents of Moldova were exempted from passing an interview for knowledge of the Romanian language, country’s history and cultural traditions. Now a Romanian passport can be obtained by everyone who lived on the territory of Moldova before 1940 (at that time Bessarabia, two-thirds of which fell on Moldova, was part of Romania), as well as their descendants up to the third generation.
