Moldova Decides to Declare Romanian Official Language

Friday, 3 March 2023

Moldova is ready to give up the Moldovan language as the official national language in the text of the Constitution.

Although the Moldovan language does not actually exist, many people in Moldova still support it.

One of the few places on the planet where the "Moldovan language" is still believed to exist is... Ukraine. The Ministry of Education of Ukraine still publishes textbooks, curricula, etc., and this non-existent language is recorded in children's certificates, which causes lots of obstacles to further education. This has to change.

In addition, by getting rid of the "Moldovan language" as soon as possible, Ukraine can also speed up the process of its EU accession.

The editor of "European Pravda," Sergiy Sydorenko, explains how it is all connected in the article The end of the "Moldovan language." Why is Moldova amending its Constitution and why is it important for Ukraine? (Ukr)

It was hot in the Parliament of Moldova March 2.

The governing party PAS, which controls a mono majority in Moldova, has its own government and president. It drafted a constitutional amendment replacing the "Moldovan" with the "Romanian language." The vote outcome was predictable - the parliamentary majority supported it.

There were no votes against it because the opposition then tried to disrupt the proceedings. With posters drawn hastily and by hand (the law hearing was not known in advance), the opposition MPs blocked the podium and began to shout the word "Moldova."

The posters read "Moldova. Moldovans. Moldovan," demands "Go" (apparently to the current government) and "Don't mock the constitution," and "Referendum!" Authorities rushed to take and tear these posters, which resulted in a fight in the hall.

However, it did not prevent the ruling majority from putting the law to a vote and gettin 56 votes (out of 101 MPs).

The "language bill," adopted so far only in the first reading, changes the Constitution, bypassing the established norms.

At the same time, the parliament formally has the constitutional court's valid permission to amend the Constitution, bypassing the procedure.

So, after the "technical changes," the paragraph of the Moldovan Constitution regarding the language will become shorter: "The state language of the Republic of Moldova is the Romanian language."

Now let's explain why the "Moldovan language" does not exist. First, linguistically, the "Moldovan language is based on the Latin alphabet" really does not exist. It's just a fact.

And the word "Moldova" means not only the country's name. The name is given to the historical region, the largest part of which is located in modern Romania. At the same time, the spoken language in this region has been Romanian for centuries. This exact language had been used by the inhabitants of ancient Moldova (references to it date back to the 17th century).

And even now, there is no difference between the language of the inhabitants on both sides of Prut, which separates modern Romania and the Republic of Moldova.

The difference between Romanian in Bucharest and in Moldova is about the same as between "Kyiv" and "Poltava" dialects (but no one would think to claim that these are two different languages!).

Unfortunately, after 1991, ambiguity disappeared in Moldova. Moscow, unable to accept the loss of control over the former republics, moved to influence them.

The language issue, including the transition to the Latin alphabet, became a propaganda tool to stir up the so-called "Transnistrian conflict," which eventually resulted in direct military action between the Russian Federation's and Moldova's armies. Moldova lost, which allowed Russia to keep its military base in the occupied territory (read more, Time to put an end to the frozen conflict in Transnistria. Ukraine and the West can do it).

The hybrid influence of the Russian Federation began to grow in Chisinau as well.

When in 1994 the Constitution of Moldova was adopted, at the request of the left forces, the "Moldovan language" was added instead of Romanian.

During the reign of the communist Vladimir Voronin, the president of Moldova, from 2001 to 2009, the linguistically absurd question of the language name turned into a question of identity. While not denying that the languages are the same, they insisted that Moldova has a more ancient history than Romania. Therefore the language name should remain.

Ukraine is probably the only state (except, actually, Moldova itself) that systematically supports the myth of the "existence of the Moldovan language" at the legislative level.

Due to Ukraine's adherence to the ideology of having a separate Moldovan language, we have a problem in relations with the Romanian authorities, which have been waiting for language unification for a long time - but need to be addressed by the Ukrainian side.

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