Romanian, the Official Language of the Republic of Moldova

A country with a majority Romanian-speaking population, the Republic of Moldova is as of Thursday, the second country where Romanian has become a state language after a ruling of the Constitutional Court of Moldova, which has put an end to a long series o

Bogdan Matei, 06.12.2013, 14:21

The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Moldova on Thursday issued a historic ruling, which rights a long-standing linguistic and moral wrong. After examining two notifications filed by various Moldovan MPs, the Court ruled that Romanian is the official language of the Republic of Moldova. The decision is grounded on the Declaration of Independence from Moscow, adopted on August 27, 1991, which explicitly names Romanian as the official language and makes no reference to a Moldovan tongue.

The President of the Moldovan Constitutional Court, Alexandru Tanase said: “The Constitutional Court of Moldova rules the following: number one, the Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Moldova is one with the Constitution, number 2, In cases of inconsistencies between the two texts, the main body of the Declaration of Independence outweighs the Constitution, and number 3, the present ruling is final, cannot be subjected to any type of challenge, will come into effect upon its enactment and will be published in the Moldovan Official Gazette”.

It took more than a century of strenuous efforts to acknowledge what is otherwise an obvious linguistic reality. The concepts of Moldovan language and people, other than Romanian, were introduced by the USSR shortly after the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. The stake was to legitimize the occupation of the Romanian eastern territories after the ultimatum of 1940. The political class in Bucharest has unanimously hailed the decision.

President Traian Basescu: “It is an act of justice towards Moldova’s Declaration of Independence, the history of its people and towards those Moldovans who feel Romanian at heart. The implications are deep going. We will have two Romanian-speaking countries in the European Union. In that respect, Moldova has a huge advantage, as it will benefit from Romania’s EU accession documentation and legislation”.

In turn, Prime Minister Victor Ponta said that the Court’s decision is the second piece of good news for Moldovans after their country’s signing the Association and Free Trade Agreements with the European Union in late November.