Macedonia President Must Sign Language Law, Speaker Says

The speaker of Macedonian parliament, Talat Xhaferi, has told BIRN's TV show Jeta ne Kosove'that if President Gjorge Ivanov again refuses to sign the new language law, after parliament voted for it for a second time, he will breach his constitutional rights.

"If Ivanov decides, as he stated, not to sign for a second time, he will be flagrantly violating the constitution," Xhaferi told the TV show on Thursday evening.

He would also "make a precedent in the political life of Macedonia", Xhaferi said, which would allow any Macedonian president in future to veto laws he does not like.

The speaker recalled that Macedonia is a parliamentary and not a presidential democracy, meaning that the head of state has only limited rights.

He noted that the President may veto a law only once, and that if parliament adopts the same act again, he has to sign it.

Macedonia's parliament adopted the government-backed law for the second time in a tense atmosphere amid opposition attempts to block the vote.

The law extends the official use of Albanian over the entire country, in which ethnic Albanians make up around a quarter of the population of 2.1 million, easing communication in Albanian with institutions like municipalities, hospitals and courts.

The previous law defined Albanian as an official language, but only gave it that status in those areas where Albanians make up over 20 per cent of the local population.

Xhaferi said the law was the last oustanding legal obligation stemming from the 2001 Ohrid Peace Accord, which ended the armed conflict between ethnic Albanian insurgents and Macedonian security forces that year by granting the Albanian community more rights.

According to Xhaferi, the opposition of some ethnic...