Moldova MPs Push to Make Romanian Official Tongue

A group of ruling Liberal Democrat MPs plan to amend Moldova's constitution so that Romanian becomes the official language instead of Moldovan, as the law currently states.

The Liberal Democrats last Thursday said that they had collected the 34 signatures needed to submit the draft to the Constitutional Court for approval.

"We hope that in the near future, with a vote by all MPs, we will modify this article [13] in the constitution and restore historical truth," said Tudor Deliu, leader of the Liberal Democrat group and the initiator of the draft.

If the Constitutional Court approves the change, the draft has to go through a vote in parliament and get a two-thirds majority.

The Speaker of Parliament, Andrian Candu, who is also deputy chairman of the ruling party, last week said that Romanian should be the official language, and that the party was planning to amend the constitution to confirm the state's pro-European identity and orientation.

However, the pro-Russian President, Igor Dodon, vowed on Friday to block the language bill. "I hope it will not get the 64 necessary votes in parliament. And even if they vote for it, I will not promulgate the law. Our state language is Moldovan. It was, it is, and so it will be," Dodon stressed.

The Constitutional Court already ruled back in 2013 that the state language was Romanian.

The court ruled that the phrase "the Romanian language", used in the 1991 Declaration of Independence, took legal precedence over over the phrase "Moldovan language", which is used in the constitution.

Ex-Constitutional Court president Alexandru Tănase told BIRN that it was time for MPs to bring Article 13 of the Constitution in line with the court's 2013 decree.

"It would … bring clarity to...