Moldovan president signs decree on referring to national language as Romanian

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Moldovan President Maya Sandu approved on Wednesday a parliamentary decree on replacing the state language from Moldovan to Romanian.

"Today I have promulgated a law confirming the historical and irrefutable truth: the official language of Moldova is Romanian. I want the Romanian language to unite all of us who live here and love this land," Sandu wrote on Facebook.

Sandu argued that renaming Moldovan into Romania will "unite the society."

The bill was adopted by votes of the pro-Western Action and Solidarity Party, and caused heated debates and protests in the capital Chisinau.

Deputies of the opposition Bloc of Communists and Socialists refused to participate in the ballot, stressing that the initiative contradicts the constitution, in which the state language is named as Moldovan.

The opposition has announced plans to challenge the move in the Constitutional Court of Moldova.

Some of Moldova's territories before 1940 were part of Romania, and Bucharest continues to consider them as its part and promotes the idea of unification.