The Communist Party of Ukraine (CPU) has proposed that President Viktor Yanukovych declare an all-Ukrainian referendum on granting Russian the status of a second official language.
“We see only one way to address this issue – by amending the Constitution through a referendum, taking into account the fact that today there is a valid court ruling that recognizes the legitimacy of the previously collected 4.2 million signatures and obliges the president to hold a referendum. This is a valid act, and we would advise President Yanukovych to take these data as a basis and call for a referendum on granting official status to Russian,” the party’s press service quoted the first secretary of the Odesa regional committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, MP Yevhen Tsarkov, as saying on Thursday.
He noted that the opposition had stated its intention to repeal the law on the principles of the state language policy if it comes to power.
“Everything that can be cancelled by a majority vote of deputies is not a stable rule, as it could be canceled by the next government. We support all documents strengthening the status of the Russian language and the languages of national minorities. Initially, this bill was weak, but now it envisages that the local authorities, at the request of the community, can grant regional status to another language, it has become of higher quality,” Tsarkov said.
He also said he was confident that the president would sign the law on the principles of the state language policy.
