Moldovan president promulgates law replacing name of state language in country's constitution with 'Romanian'

CHISINAU. March 22 (Interfax) - Moldovan President Maia Sandu has said on social media that she promulgated on Wednesday the bill replacing the syntagm 'the Moldovan language' with 'the Romanian language' in the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova.

"I am convinced that the Romanian language should and may become a catalyst of our society's consolidation and for this, it must be respected and, certainly, learned and spoken by all our citizens," Sandu said.

She noted on social media that this legislation "confirms the historical truth that the state language in Moldova is Romanian."

"I wish to see the Romanian language unite us all, people living here and loving this land. We, alongside more than 27 million people across the world, speak the Romanian language, one of the official languages of the European Union. Those who have for decades kept telling us that we, citizens of the Republic of Moldova, speak the 'Moldovan' language, not Romanian, pursued only one thing, which is to divide us. Because, dividing the people, it is easier to subdue and control. It isn't linguistics that bothers those trying to divide us but keeping Moldova in a state of eternal national discord," Sandu said.

As reported earlier, the Moldovan parliament last week passed the bill "On Implementing Considerations of Certain Resolutions of the Constitutional Court." Under the new law, the syntagm "the Moldovan language" will be replaced with "the Romanian language" in the texts of all Moldovan statutory acts, including the Constitution.