Arbër Ademi: Is the Constitutional Court preparing another blow against the Albanian language?

Arbër Ademi, secretary-general of the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), expressed concern today that the Constitutional Court could take another action detrimental to the use of the Albanian language.

At a press conference, Ademi announced that the agenda for tomorrow’s session of the Constitutional Court also includes the Regulation on the manner of maintaining, and the form and content of, records and pedagogical documentation in secondary schools. The regulation was approved by the education minister and published in Official Gazette No. 32/2026.

According to him, the act has been challenged on the grounds of its compatibility with the Constitution, as it contradicts Amendment 5 of the Constitution of the Republic of North Macedonia and Article 17 of the Law on the Use of Languages. As Ademi pointed out, the reason is that the regulation was published in the Official Gazette only in Macedonian, although the law requires it to be published in Albanian as well.

“Amendment 5 of the Constitution is clear. Article 17 of the Law on the Use of Languages is equally clear, stipulating that all laws, bylaws, decisions and announcements of institutions published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Macedonia must be published in Macedonian and its alphabet, as well as in Albanian and its alphabet. But the legal arguments do not end there,” he said.

Ademi also referred to Article 8, paragraph 1, of the Law on the Publication of Laws and Other Regulations and Acts in the Official Gazette of the Republic of North Macedonia. According to him, this article stipulates that all laws, bylaws, decisions and announcements of state authorities in the Republic of North Macedonia, which expressly includes the Constitutional Court of the Republic of North Macedonia, must be published in the Official Gazette in Macedonian and its Cyrillic alphabet, as well as in Albanian and its script.

“These provisions clearly show that the Constitution, as the highest legal act; the Law on the Use of Languages, as the special law governing this matter; and the Law on the Publication of Laws and Other Regulations and Acts in the Official Gazette of the Republic of North Macedonia establish the official and ex officio obligation of institutions to publish every act published in the Official Gazette in both languages,” Ademi stated.

The DUI secretary-general also raised several questions regarding the matter.

“Does the fact that the contested act was not also published in Albanian constitute a violation of the Constitution and the aforementioned laws, or is the Albanian language being treated as a second-class issue and as something insignificant? What does this mean, and is the possibility being created that laws, too, will be published only in Macedonian in the future? Why is the Court departing from its previously established judicial practice when it comes to the language and rights of Albanians?” Ademi asked.