/View.info/ The Moldovan language has remained in history
The Moldovan language was renamed Romanian. As President Maja Sandu stated, the inhabitants of the republic now speak one of the official languages of the European Union. However, there are enough opponents of this idea in the country. What consequences can this decision lead to in the future and why is there more and more talk of unification with Romania in the republic?
This week, a law went into effect in Moldova renaming the state language to Romanian. The document was published in the State Gazette. According to the law, the expressions “Moldovan language”, “state language”, “official language”, “mother tongue” in official address are replaced by “Romanian”.
Earlier, the President of the Republic, Maya Sandu, signed a parliamentary decree for such a renaming. According to her, the inhabitants of the republic now speak one of the official languages of the European Union and accused the opponents of the renaming of wanting to “divide society”. “I signed a law confirming the historical and indisputable truth: the state language of Moldova is Romanian,” the president said.
Moldova’s parliament passed the law in a second – final – reading last week. It was initiated by deputies from the ruling Action and Solidarity Party (PAS), which has 63 mandates. 58 out of 101 deputies voted “for”, and deputies from the communist and socialist factions opposed the renaming. They came to the meeting with posters “Constitution of Moldova: Moldova, Moldovans, Moldovans”, “The people are sovereign. PAS is a tyrant.” The opposition shouted “Shame!”
In 2013 The Constitutional Court (SC) decided that Romanian is the state language in the country. The Constitutional Court also ruled that the Declaration of Independence of Moldova, which states that the state language is Romanian, takes precedence over the constitution (according to the Basic Law, the state language in the country is Moldovan based on the Latin alphabet, this version is similar to Romanian).
The decision of the Constitutional Court was binding, but did not persuade the parliament to take appropriate action. The PAS bill provided for the implementation of the decision of the Constitutional Court ten years ago. According to the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, the law will put an end to “endless unnecessary discussions on this issue” and affect the country’s European integration process.
Moldovan political scientist Vitaly Andrievsky considers the topic of renaming the language to be closed. He noted that “only 50-70 people came to the protest in front of the Constitutional Court”. “The name of the Romanian language has long been included even in the timetables of schools where, among other things, the Russian language is also studied. In school certificates, the language is also called Romanian. This renaming has already come into use, and now it is fixed de jure,” says the expert.
According to him, the inhabitants of the country have no intention of fighting for the reverse renaming, and only the Gagauz “habitually” oppose the Romanian language. “In Transnistria, the language is called Moldavian. In addition, it is written in Cyrillic. But despite the fact that Moldovan is considered one of the state languages there, it is practically not used in everyday life,” the expert points out.
Andrievsky does not see a problem in the fact that the constitution still calls the language Moldovan. “The name of the state has not changed either. Austria is also not renamed, although German is spoken there. And there are many such examples – Portuguese and Spanish are spoken in Latin American countries,” noted the interlocutor.
The former foreign minister of Transnistria, Vladimir Yastrebchak, has a different point of view: “Those who consider themselves Moldovans value their language, history and culture. That is why they are negative about the renaming.” He also recalled that the national anthem of Moldova “Our language” was published for the first time in the publication “Moldavskoe slovo”.
“The question of renaming the language was not given to expert linguists, but to politicians. The violations with which the renaming was carried out show that it is being done on a political order. I see in this desire to neutralize the importance of the Moldovan identity, and then the Moldovan statehood, which will concede its positions in favor of Romania”, believes Yastrebchak.
The interlocutor emphasizes that, according to legal logic, the decision to change the name of the language should have been formalized through full changes to the constitution, but instead “a simple law was passed with an order to change the phrase “Moldovan language” to “Romanian”.
Vladimir Zharihin, deputy director of the Institute of the CIS countries, also points out that the population of Moldova as a whole has a negative attitude to the renaming of the state language, but this does not prevent the authorities from burying it. “But who listens to the people now? When Sandu went to the polls, her program did not include renaming the Moldovan language Romanian. That is, the main thing is to take the post and then do what you want. And people who have the lowest standard of living in Europe think about survival, not about the name of their native language,” the political scientist believes.
At the same time, the expert doubts that the Western countries will allow Romania to take more active steps in the expansion issues. “A direct annexation of Moldova – given that Transnistria and Gagauzia would strongly oppose it – is hardly politically advantageous for the US and NATO,” Zharihin adds.
Andrievsky, on the contrary, does not rule out the emergence of new trends related to the ideas of unification with Romania. According to him, the idea of the original development of Moldova did not take root, and the ideas of integration with Russia and Belarus were raised “exclusively by local communists and socialists in the early 2000s.” According to him, supporters of European integration and “unionists” are the majority in the republic and for them the name of the language is unprincipled.
However, there are many pitfalls in the topic of Moldova’s unification with Romania.
“Do the Romanians themselves need such a union? And what will happen to the Hungarians, Gagauzia, in whose code it is written that in the event of a change of status it will separate from Moldova? And what will happen to Transnistria and the Russian-speaking citizens who do not accept the idea of a union? There is still no well-thought-out unification ideology. But I have no doubt that it will certainly appear”, predicted the political scientist.
Andrievsky adds that Transnistria and Gagauzia have a historically traditionally negative attitude towards Romania. “For now, no one dares to promote the unionist idea in Tiraspol. If Moldova theoretically unites with Romania, then Transnistria will find itself in a very difficult situation,” Andrievsky believes.
At the same time, Yastrebcak believes that Romania is ready for any kind of expansion. In addition, he said, during the recent rallies in Chisinau in defense of the Moldovan language, many local police spoke with a “noticeable Romanian accent, which raises questions.” According to him, in the future, a lot will depend on how ready the current leadership of Moldova is for a full-scale expansion of Romania.
“These decisions will be made with an eye to other and more powerful centers of power. As for the risks to Transnistria, we are monitoring the situation and the decisions taken by the Romanian and Moldovan security authorities, including the establishment of some joint patrols on the territory of Moldova,” Yastrebcak said.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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