The Bloc of Communists and Socialists (BCS) MP Vlad Barîncea filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court (CC) on Tuesday, March 28, asking for the “verification of constitutionality” of the law that stipulates that the phrase “Romanian language” has replaced “Moldovan language” in all laws of Moldova.

“The Constitution cannot be amended by an organic law voted by a simple majority in Parliament. In this case, the constitutional procedure for amending the supreme law was ignored,” said the deputy speaker of the Parliament, the executive secretary of the Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova (PSRM), Vlad Batrîncea, according to an information note published on the Socialists’ website.

In 2013, the CC ruled that the official language of Moldova is Romanian.

“The Court ruled that in case of discrepancies between the text of the Declaration of Independence and the text of the Constitution, the primary constitutional text of the Declaration of Independence prevails. The judgment is final, cannot be appealed against, enters into force on the date of its adoption and is published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Moldova,” according to the Court’s decision.

On 22 March 2023, President Maia Sandu promulgated a law stipulating that the phrase “Romanian language” replaces “Moldovan language” in all Moldovan laws.

The head of state said at the time that the Romanian language must and can be “the catalyst for the consolidation of our society, and for this to happen it must be respected and, of course, it must be appropriated and spoken by all our citizens”.

“(…) Those who have told us for decades that we, the citizens of Moldova, speak “Moldovan” and not Romanian – have only one aim: to divide us. This is because, once you have divided a nation, you can subjugate and control it more easily. A divided people is not a united force that can protect itself. Those who tried to divide us did not fight over linguistics, but over how to keep Moldova locked in an eternal national quarrel (…)”, stressed the head of state.

On 16 March 2023, the Parliament voted in final reading on a draft law stipulating that the phrase “Romanian language” will replace “Moldovan language” in all Moldovan laws. The terms “official language”, “state language” and “mother tongue” will also be replaced.

The draft law was drafted by a group of MPs from the “Action and Solidarity Party” faction and voted in second reading by 58 votes. Representatives of the Bloc of Communists and Socialists (BCS) did not vote for the bill and held up placards reading: “Constitution of the Republic of Moldova: Moldova, of Moldova, Moldovan”, “The people are sovereign! PAS is tyrant” and “Moldovan language is the mother, Romanian language is the daughter”.

According to the authors, the conditions that required the elaboration of this draft law result, “undoubtedly, from the necessity and obligation to implement considerations of constitutional value, contained in the acts of the High Court of Constitutional Jurisdiction and which establish an unquestionable postulate, namely that the state language of the Republic of Moldova is Romanian”.