NATIONAL HOLIDAY PERCEIVED DIFFERENTLY IN RULING COALITION
01.09.2010
The Limba Noastra [Our Language] holiday, marked in Moldova annually on August 31 since 1989, revealed differences in the country’s governing Alliance for European Integration (AEI) because the coalition’s Liberal Party, Liberal Democratic Party and the Moldova Noastra Alliance regard the language to be Romanian, while the Democratic Party – the Moldovan language.
On Tuesday, the country’s leadership traditionally laid flowers at the Alley of the Classics in Chisinau’s central public garden, after which Moldova’s Acting President and Speaker of the Parliament Mihai Ghimpu promised voters he would resolve the language name problem once and forever and fix the correct name [Romanian] in the Constitution, if certainly citizens vote for him as president.
He stated, “Give me your votes, and you will see. Give me the power for signing presidential decrees. Upon receiving a majority of votes, I shall resolve all questions”.
Prime Minister Vladimir Filat said he regards the language name in the Constitution to be “just a technical question”. He also promised the situation would be corrected in the nearest future.
First Deputy Speaker of the Moldovan Parliament, Chairman of the Moldova Noastra Alliance (MNA) Serafim Urechean spoke out for holding one more referendum – to learn citizens’ opinion about which language they think they actually speak. However, he voiced apprehension lest this should stir up conflicts between politicians.
Democratic Party Chairman Marian Lupu offered a compromise: the official language should be called in the Constitution as Moldovan, with “Romanian” to be written in brackets, or vice versa – Romanian (Moldovan).
The AEI leaders laid flowers to the monuments to Moldova’s medieval King Stefan cel Mare and to outstanding Romanian literature writers in the above-mentioned Alley of the Classics. Acting President Mihai Ghimpu attended a sermon at the city’s central cemetery to the memory of poet Grigore Vieru and to the married couple of singer Doina Aldea-Teodorovici and her husband, music composer and singer Ion. All the three died in car accidents.
On Tuesday, Mihai Ghimpu organized an excursion to the presidential countryside villa near the Condrita village for over 50 pupils and teachers from Romanian-language lyceums in Transnistria. Ghimpu signed a presidential decree on decorating some lyceum directors with Ordinul Republicii [the Order of the Republic] for their outstanding contribution to the cause of Romanian language promotion and for “promotion of the scientific truth”.
Infotag’s dossier: On August 27, 1989 a Great National Assembly [an all-republican meeting of the Moldovan people held in the Chisinau central square] demanded from the leadership of the then Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic to declare Romanian as the republic’s official language. And 4 days later, on August 31, the Supreme Soviet [parliament] voted for returning to the Latin alphabet. Since that year, schools in Moldova study the Romanian language and Romanian literature, and August 31 is celebrated as Limba Noastra.
In 1994, the parliamentary Agrarian-Democratic Party, the Unitate-Edinstvo Movement, the Bloc of Peasants and Intellectuals and the Alliance of Christian Democratic Popular Front adopted a Constitution of the Republic of Moldova. Its Article 13 reads that the official language in the Republic of Moldova is the Moldovan language. Upon coming into power in 2001 and until 2009, the governing Communist Party marked August 31 as a holiday of the native language, without mentioning its name.
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