The Albanian League reacted immediately after statements made today by Parliament Speaker Afrim Gashi regarding the Draft Law on Fair and Adequate Representation.

The party described as scandalous Gashi’s claim that a flawed law on fair and adequate representation is better than having no law at all. According to the statement, even more problematic is the fact that the co-chairmen of VLEN share the same view.

The Albanian League believes it is better for no law to be adopted than to accept an act that, according to the party, would return Albanians to the political differentiation of the post-1981 period.

Clarifying its position to the public, the party stressed that the right to representation should remain enshrined solely in the Constitution, rather than the government’s current proposal being adopted. The Albanian League argues that the text contains no sanctions or enforcement mechanisms, while providing only for the removal of ethnic quotas in employment.

According to the party, such a solution is intended to return the rights of Albanians to the era of political differentiation that followed 1981 in the former Yugoslavia. In this way, the statement says, the future of Albanians and that of their children and grandchildren would depend on the goodwill or ill will of Macedonian politicians. The Albanian League told political representatives that they have no right to bargain with the rights of Albanians.

In conclusion, Sela’s party mocked Gashi’s positions in support of the government, alluding to his closeness to VMRO-DPMNE. It reminded him of the example of the frog that he used while in opposition, addressing him with the words: “Therefore, Afrim Gashi, since you are so fond of the frog allegory, someone is slowly heating the water around you.”

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Deputy of the Albanian League, Elmi Aziri, has leveled strong accusations against the government, claiming that an attempt is being made to pass the Law on Higher Education secretly and without respecting procedures.

“I asked for the floor on a procedural matter to express our concern and opposition to this practice that is being aimed to be established in the Parliament’s proceedings. This functioning contradicts several articles of the regulation, specifically Article 74, Article 126, and Article 115,” Aziri declared. According to him, the regulation clearly defines the circumstances and the manner in which a plenary session is called, conditions that have not been met in this case.

He demanded the immediate interruption of the session, stressing that none of the prerequisites required by the regulation have been fulfilled. Aziri drew attention specifically to Article 74, which stipulates that the notice of the meeting, together with the proposed agenda and relevant materials, must be sent to deputies at least ten working days before the date set for the session. However, according to him, the call for this session was made on Friday, in the late afternoon hours.

The deputy described this course of action as a clandestine tendency and an attempt to smuggle laws, which serves neither the parliamentary majority nor the institution of Parliament. He warned that procedural violations undermine the democratic functioning of Parliament and should not be allowed to happen.

Referring to the dynamics of Friday, Aziri described it as a day filled with scandals that paved the way for today’s session. He listed a series of chaotic actions: first the committee was called, then its work was suspended, then the session was called again, the law was withdrawn, and then reintroduced again. According to him, all of this creates chaos aimed at getting deputies lost in the labyrinths of the Regulations.

In the end, Aziri appealed for the session to be interrupted and the regulations to be respected. He requested that deputies be given sufficient time to discuss and analyze the issue and that a new session be called in full compliance with the rules.

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According to this reaction, VMRO-DPMNE has fulfilled almost all of the commitments made before the elections, while the Albanian partners in the executive, according to the party, have served as supporters of these policies.

“During these two years of OBRM-PDUMM–ZNAM-VLEN governance, two main objectives were achieved: the precise implementation of VMRO’s ‘Macedonia Is Yours Again’ platform and the destruction of the Ohrid Agreement in each of its four main pillars. OBRM-PDUMM managed to realize all of its pre-election promises and the points of its platform, starting with the violation of the legitimacy of Albanians as the first step that paved the way for every other action in the future,” the reaction states.

The Albanian League also recalls Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski’s promises to remove the mechanisms of the Ohrid Agreement, claiming that these have already been put into practice through Constitutional Court decisions and the Government’s legislative initiatives.

“Remember when OBRM-PDUMM and Prime Minister Hristian Mickoski pledged that they would remove the Balancer and Badinter. Through the Constitutional Court, he abolished the Balancer and, through the same court, is abolishing every law and decision that was adopted under the Badinter Principle. Remember when he said he would return the state and institutions to Macedonian hands. At first, they did this by dismissing thousands of Albanians from their jobs and from leadership positions, and now they are trying to do it through the draft law on fair and adequate representation, where ethnic representation is eliminated with ‘meritocracy,’ while the Badinter principle is replaced with a ‘small Badinter,’” the reaction emphasizes.

The reaction also says that during these two years, actions were taken against the use of the Albanian language, as well as against the decentralization process.

“They also went after the Albanian Language. They failed to abolish it through the Constitutional Court thanks to the resistance and protest of the opposition, but in practice they stopped its official use by forcing even Albanian officials to write documents in only one language. Most tragically, they forced them even declaratively to distance themselves from and deny the Albanian Language. By Government decision, during these two years the Albanian diaspora was erased and, as a result, the number of Albanian councilors was reduced, funds for municipalities from the state budget and from the Hungarian loan were cut, striking the pillar of decentralization in general and fiscal decentralization in particular. On this issue, Yugoslav and communist names were also reinstated, by overturning the decision of the Tetovo Municipal Council on Albanian names for squares and streets,” the reaction further states.

Ziadin Sela’s party assesses that with the abolition of the technical Government, the political legitimacy of Albanians in the process of forming power has also been affected.

“The technical Government was abolished and will no longer exist after the next elections. Although depoliticization and the prevention of state interference in elections did not happen, the situation has become even worse. Now, regardless of what the Albanian citizen says with their vote, the last government was formed by the will of the prime minister and not by the will of Albanians,” the reaction stresses.

In conclusion, the Albanian League directs direct accusations at VLEN, which it says has acted during its two years in government to the detriment of Albanian interests.

“Meanwhile, the Albanian ‘representatives’ without legitimacy in this Government, VLEN, have had only one role during these two years: that of vassal, relativizer and advocate of those who have violated and degraded Albanians. For a few armchairs and privileges, VLEN sold our children’s right to employment, their mother tongue and every other right that belongs to them in the land of their ancestors, making them feel like strangers,” concludes the reaction of the Albanian League on the occasion of the second anniversary of the governance of the OBRM-PDUMM-ZNAM-VLEN coalition.

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