The former president of North Macedonia, Stevo Pendarovski, stated on Tevë1 that the Albanian language is official due to the percentage of Albanians living in Macedonia.
According to him, the use of Albanian is regulated through the law on languages, which has been amended several times to improve the rights of the Albanian community.
"It is official because of 20% of the people living in this country. Meanwhile, we have accepted two legal languages. It is the main law in English, but it is the law in Albanian, in essence. The first law I think is in 2008. And the last one was in 2007 or something. So, we have changed this law several times, improving the rights of Albanians. What happened in the meantime? Someone, supposedly a simple citizen, unknown to the public, has filed a motion before the Constitutional Court saying that the law on language, on the Albanian language, is not in accordance with the Constitution and has requested the annulment of this law... The Constitutional Court has already scheduled a hearing on this issue and it will be a big problem if they are going to annul this law on languages that is allegedly not in accordance with the Constitution," Pendarovski declared.
However, Pendarovski stressed that the main problem remains the practical implementation of the law, especially in institutions and the judicial system.
"Albanians can use this language, but in many cases we do not see full implementation in institutions and courts. It is important to ask whether these rights are being implemented in everyday life," he said.
Pendarovski added that if the law on languages remains only on paper and is used for political propaganda, then it does not serve the citizens who should benefit from these rights in practice.
