Along with name change, Albanian becomes official language in Macedonia

This agreement, according to Parliament Speaker Talat Xhaferi, but government officials are also expected to be approved at the session scheduled for January 9th, while later along with the Language Law will be submitted for publication in Official Gazette. Chief Parliamentary Talat Xhaferi, asked to comment on the president's refusal, Gjorge Ivanov, to decree the Law on the language, but also the first phase of the Agreement with Greece, has said no one will be able to prevent the empowering of these legal acts.

I don't need to deal with anyone when the constitutional competencies of institutions are in question. President Ivanov was obliged to do so, but he didn't, so I consider it absorption issue. I think no one has the right to obstruct the will of deputies, and that will happen”, Xhaferi declared.

Prime Minister Xhaferi has voiced confidence that constitutional amendments will be voted in the pre-term, perhaps even earlier than January 15th, as he does not expect debate by MPs, even the fact that the opposition VMRO has indicated it would not participate in the session, calling the entire debate far due to the rejection of its remarks involving the rejection of the name agreement, which it estimates as the <x0-captive” for the country.

But, from the Albanian opposition, which has previously had remarks on Albanian-language status, they say they have already drafted amendments aimed at advancing the Albanian language, respectively, its equality with the Macedonian language.

“On the entire territory of the Republic of Northern Macedonia, another official language other than Macedonian is Albanian and Latin. So we ask for a change only of paragraph 2 of the Constitution 5 amendment”, declared Fadil Zendeli, deputy of the Bisa Movement, this party that operates in two parts, one in Government, the other in opposition.