Macedonia, V: Police Units to Be Albanian

In the Government's announcement, released on Tuesday, March 15th, the decision is said to have been adopted on the basis of the Law on Use of Languages.

Police “Uniforms in Skopje and in municipalities where at least 20 per cent of citizens speak official language (Albanian language) different from Macedonian, written in Macedonian and language used by at least 20 per cent of citizens in the Republic of Northern Macedonia”, says the Government's announcement.

The decision goes into effect on the eighth day of publication in the Official Journal, and will begin to be implemented within a year of entry into force.

The decision has also been made known by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Political System Artan Grubi, who on social networks has announced that the “government has decided that police uniforms in the future will also have inscriptions in Albanian”.

“Another task has been fulfilled today! Albanian also in police uniforms”, has written Grubi on the social Facebook network.

The law on the use of languages, under which the Albanian language is widely used in majority Albanian municipalities, as well as in state institutions, was adopted in January 2019.

In central institutions, all billboards are in two languages, while in Government and Parliament, Albanian ministers, MPs as well as the Speaker of the Parliament use Albanian, while documents are published in two languages.

Even in Government, Albanian ministers have the right to use Albanian in writing and speaking.

Albanian paprikas have also called for Albanian use in the military and banknotes, but this has been rejected by the government after a Venice Commission thought, which estimates their use conflicts with the constitution. / REL