DUI on the 25th Anniversary of the Ohrid Agreement: Equality and Acquired Rights Must Be Protected

The Democratic Union for Integration today commemorates the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Ohrid Peace Agreement, which it describes as one of the defining moments in the modern history of North Macedonia. A DUI statement says that on August 13, 2001, with the guarantees and support of the United States of America, the European Union and NATO, the country chose a path of peace, equality and the creation of a society in which all citizens have an equal sense of belonging.

According to DUI, the document laid the foundations for a new constitutional, legal and political order based on fair and adequate representation, equality, the protection of language and identity, decentralization, consensus-based decision-making and the inclusion of all communities in state institutions. The agreement, it emphasized, not only guaranteed peace and equality within the country but also created the fundamental conditions for North Macedonia to achieve its strategic objectives.

The statement underscores that the stability and new political system that emerged from the agreement made it possible to achieve one of the country’s two main strategic goals: NATO membership. DUI adds that the other objective, integration into the European Union, cannot be separated from the agreement’s full implementation and respect for its spirit. According to the party, the road to Brussels runs through Ohrid, because a European future cannot be built without equality, a functioning democracy, stable interethnic relations and respect for the agreements underpinning the country’s stability.

DUI believes that, precisely on the agreement’s 25th anniversary, instead of these principles being further strengthened, a troubling process to dismantle them is underway. The party accuses the Constitutional Court of increasingly turning into a para-political institution and of weakening important pillars of the order established after 2001 through decisions it describes as unconstitutional. At the same time, according to DUI, provisions that remain in force are either disregarded or not implemented by the institutions.

The statement cites as examples the abolition of mechanisms that ensured ethnic representation, thereby undermining fair and adequate representation, as well as attacks on the use of the Albanian language and the failure to implement existing legal provisions. DUI also claims that the political legitimacy of Albanians has been violated and that the method used to calculate the total population does not reflect the reality of the 2021 census. The party also opposes the removal of street and square names introduced more than two decades ago to reflect the country’s multiethnic character, as well as attempts to replace them with names from the era of one-party rule, which, it says, honor neither any community nor the country’s democratic future.

According to DUI, these developments should not be viewed as isolated cases or merely technical problems, as together they form a dangerous trend of regression. The party warns that the balance upon which peace and stability were built is called into question when one pillar is brought down by a court ruling, another is ignored by the executive branch and a third is downplayed politically.

DUI emphasizes that the Ohrid Agreement cannot be implemented selectively—respected only when it serves those in power and circumvented when it protects equality. According to the party, such conduct seriously jeopardizes social cohesion, interethnic relations and North Macedonia’s long-term stability.

The party says it led the process through which the Ohrid Agreement evolved from a peace document into a constitutional, legal and institutional reality. For DUI, the anniversary is not only an opportunity to recall the results achieved but also a moment to respond to what it considers to be at risk today. Its message is that there must be no retreat from equality, no concessions regarding acquired rights and no silence in the face of attempts to dismantle them.

The statement says that the Ohrid Peace Agreement demonstrated that North Macedonia makes progress when its communities govern together rather than rule over one another, when differences are treated as an asset rather than a threat, and when decision-making is based on legitimacy, consensus and equality. According to DUI, any attempt to restore the logic of outvoting, domination and marginalization would mean not only a return to the period before 2001 but also a threat to the formula that has preserved peace for a quarter of a century.

On this 25th anniversary, DUI pays tribute to the sacrifice and contribution of all those who made peace and the institutionalization of equality possible. At the same time, the party calls on state institutions, political parties and international partners not to allow the degradation of the agreement that brought the country peace, stability and a Euro-Atlantic future.