A Romanian official has publicly rejected the official classification of the Vlach language in eastern Serbia as a separate tongue, calling it an artificial legacy of Stalinist policy and insisting that the Romanian-speaking communities of the Timoc Valley are Romanian. Radu Cosma made the remarks in a Facebook post on Tuesday, following his attendance at a religious ceremony at Mălainița Monastery in eastern Serbia on Sunday.
«The truth must be confessed: the Romanians of the Timoc Valley speak the Romanian language. The local speech varieties are a richness of our language, not a basis for inventing a distinct language,» Cosma wrote. He argued that the label «Vlach language» is a rudiment of Stalinist, atheistic and communist policies, comparing it to the former official designation of «Moldovan language» in Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova. «Even if Ukraine or the Republic of Moldova have renounced the Moldovan language, which was an invention of Stalinist offices, we believe that the moment of truth will come in Serbia as well,» he said.
The ceremony at Mălainița Monastery, which belongs to the Romanian Orthodox Vicariate of Timoc under the Eparchy of Dacia Felix of the Romanian Orthodox Church, marked the local proclamation of the canonization of Saint Magdalena. The event drew senior Orthodox hierarchs and representatives of the Romanian state, including Senator Mircea Chelaru and presidential adviser Eugen Tomac. In his address, Cosma invoked the historical and Christian roots of the community, mentioning Saint Nicetas of Remesiana and the martyrs Hermil and Stratonic, and spoke of «a continuity in time and space between Romania and the historic community in Serbia» that «cannot be overlooked.»
The status and identity of the Vlachs in eastern Serbia have been disputed for years. The Romanian Cultural Institute maintains that the distinction between «Vlach» and «Romanian,» and between the «Vlach language» and Romanian, is artificial. Serbian official statistics, however, record Vlachs and Romanians separately as ethnic affiliations and list Vlach and Romanian separately as mother tongues. At Serbia's most recent census in 2022, 21,013 people declared themselves Vlachs and 23,044 declared themselves Romanians. Regarding mother tongue, 23,216 people indicated Vlach and 21,477 indicated Romanian, according to the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia. The census data also show a different geographic distribution: those declaring themselves Vlachs are concentrated mainly in eastern Serbia, including the Timoc area, while Romanians are concentrated in significant numbers in Vojvodina, in the north of the country.
The controversy is not new. A 2008 report by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe noted differing positions within the community: some Vlachs considered themselves part of the Romanian minority, while others identified as a distinct minority. In a 2023 evaluation report, the Council of Europe treated Romanian and Vlach separately under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and examined measures taken by Serbia to protect and promote both languages.
The event in Mălainița also served to reaffirm Romania's support for the Romanian community in the Timoc Valley. In a message delivered at the ceremony by Eugen Tomac, President Nicușor Dan stressed that «the preservation and promotion of national identity, language, faith, culture and Romanian traditions» is a fundamental responsibility of the state toward Romanians everywhere. The president described the local proclamation of Saint Magdalena's canonization as a celebration of faith but also of «the memory and continuity of a community» that has preserved its identity and traditions across generations. He also underlined the importance of «our historical and cultural bridges» that continue to define the bond between Romania and the Romanian communities in Serbia.