Communists call for expansion of language law

The Communist Party of Ukraine has proposed expanding the scope of the language law and sees in it no threat to Ukrainian society.

"We will introduce amendments [to the law on principles of state language policy] to expand the scope of this law," Communist Party MP Oleksandr Holub told Interfax-Ukraine on Friday.

He said that the Russian language was not a minority language, because "at least half of our citizens freely speak it."

"Of course, we will block all attempts to neutralize this law and cancel its current provisions," he said.

The MP said that the whole society would soon make sure that nothing bad would happen in relation to the Ukrainian language. He also said that the adoption of the law was one of the steps of granting official status to the Russian language.

Holub said that in a new parliament the Communist Party would raise the question of the adoption of a bill proposed by Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko, People's Party faction deputy Serhiy Hrynevetsky and Regions Party faction leader Oleksandr Yefremov.

"In our opinion, it is more progressive, and it better takes into account the language needs," he said.

Holub said that the protection of the Ukrainian language at the legislative level would be one of the initiatives of the Communist Party in the new parliament.