{"id":444782,"date":"2017-10-31T14:21:39","date_gmt":"2017-10-31T14:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/?p=444782"},"modified":"2017-10-31T14:21:39","modified_gmt":"2017-10-31T14:21:39","slug":"moldova-constitutional-court-green-lights-draft-law-setting-romanian-official-language-dodon-asks-referendum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/moldova-constitutional-court-green-lights-draft-law-setting-romanian-official-language-dodon-asks-referendum\/","title":{"rendered":"Moldova Constitutional Court green-lights draft law setting Romanian as official language, Dodon asks for referendum"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

On October 31st, the Constitutional Court of Moldova qualified as constitutional the legislative initiative of 34 MPs to replace the Moldovan language in the Constitution with Romanian.<\/p>\n

According to the judges of the Court, the current decision is a technical one and completes its decision from 5 December 2013 that established the superiority of the Declaration of Independence over the later-adopted Constitution. The president of the Court, Tudor Pan\u021b\u00eeru, made it clear the draft law can be sent to the Parliament for a vote.<\/p>\n

One of the authors of the draft, Liberal-Democrat Tudor Deliu, is sure that the 13th Article of the Constitution needs to be\u00a0changed with respect to the widely-known fact that Romanian is the only correct name of the language spoken in the Republic of Moldova:<\/p>\n

“We believe that those who represent the people will vote for this project. We need 68 votes”<\/em>, declared Deliu in response to questions about the unwillingness of many MPs to adopt Romanian as the official language.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, President Igor Dodon criticized the decision of the Constitutional Court, claiming that the majority of Moldovan people believe they speak Moldovan and that Moldovan language has been “officialized for centuries” on the territory of Moldova.<\/p>\n

“And if anyone, wherever they are, has doubts in this regard, we can organize a referendum to ask the citizens the name of the language they prefer: Romanian or Moldovan”,\u00a0<\/em>declared Dodon, accusing the right-wing politicians and some members of the Constitutional Court of being “mercenaries” for the “Unionist project of erasing the Moldovan identity”.<\/p>\n

Dodon says that the decision of the Court would be analyzed from the juridical point of view after the change of the government, after the next Parliamentary elections<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In a Facebook post, the Vice-President of the Parliament, Iurie Leanc\u0103, stressed out<\/a> that the opinion of the President does not matter in topics that do not need to be politicized and transformed in “political dividends”. In addition, Leanc\u0103 asked Dodon in Russian to “drink tea and not move (keep calm- Moldova.org)”- a phrase\u00a0which the president used towards a journalist to dodge his questions.<\/p>\n

The draft law on changing the name of the official language in the Constitution was initiated by the Liberal-Democrats, Liberals and the MPs of the European People’s Party. The Democrats showed formal support for the initiative, while the Socialists strongly oppose it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>On October 31st, the Constitutional Court of Moldova qualified as constitutional the legislative initiative of 34 MPs to replace the Moldovan language in the Constitution with Romanian. According to the judges of the Court, the current decision is a technical one and completes its decision from 5 December 2013 that established the superiority of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":444783,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-444782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-en","category-politics","tag-important"],"content_social_share":"Reading Time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

On October 31st, the Constitutional Court of Moldova qualified as constitutional the legislative initiative of 34 MPs to replace the Moldovan language in the Constitution with Romanian.<\/p>\n

According to the judges of the Court, the current decision is a technical one and completes its decision from 5 December 2013 that established the superiority of the Declaration of Independence over the later-adopted Constitution. The president of the Court, Tudor Pan\u021b\u00eeru, made it clear the draft law can be sent to the Parliament for a vote.<\/p>\n

One of the authors of the draft, Liberal-Democrat Tudor Deliu, is sure that the 13th Article of the Constitution needs to be\u00a0changed with respect to the widely-known fact that Romanian is the only correct name of the language spoken in the Republic of Moldova:<\/p>\n

“We believe that those who represent the people will vote for this project. We need 68 votes”<\/em>, declared Deliu in response to questions about the unwillingness of many MPs to adopt Romanian as the official language.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, President Igor Dodon criticized the decision of the Constitutional Court, claiming that the majority of Moldovan people believe they speak Moldovan and that Moldovan language has been “officialized for centuries” on the territory of Moldova.<\/p>\n

“And if anyone, wherever they are, has doubts in this regard, we can organize a referendum to ask the citizens the name of the language they prefer: Romanian or Moldovan”,\u00a0<\/em>declared Dodon, accusing the right-wing politicians and some members of the Constitutional Court of being “mercenaries” for the “Unionist project of erasing the Moldovan identity”.<\/p>\n

Dodon says that the decision of the Court would be analyzed from the juridical point of view after the change of the government, after the next Parliamentary elections<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In a Facebook post, the Vice-President of the Parliament, Iurie Leanc\u0103, stressed out<\/a> that the opinion of the President does not matter in topics that do not need to be politicized and transformed in “political dividends”. In addition, Leanc\u0103 asked Dodon in Russian to “drink tea and not move (keep calm- Moldova.org)”- a phrase\u00a0which the president used towards a journalist to dodge his questions.<\/p>\n

The draft law on changing the name of the official language in the Constitution was initiated by the Liberal-Democrats, Liberals and the MPs of the European People’s Party. The Democrats showed formal support for the initiative, while the Socialists strongly oppose it.<\/p>\n

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