Mickoski: Ahmeti is complaining about the judges he chose himself

2024-10-29 21:35:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Mickoski: Ahmeti is complaining about the judges he chose himself

The Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Hristijan Mickoski

The Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Hristijan Mickoski, declared on Tuesday that he has received the letter sent the day before by the leader of the Democratic Union for Integration (BDI) in the opposition, Ali Ahmeti, in which the latter expressed concerns about the impact of the decisions of the Constitutional Court in the inter-ethnic cohesion and stability of the country.

According to Mickoski, in the first part of the letter, Ahmeti addresses issues of the geopolitical situation and in the second part he expresses dissatisfaction with the judges' decisions, which, according to him, "were chosen with the support of the previous government, DUI and the Social Democratic League (LSDM) ".

"I did not know that these judges, I repeat, elected by the majority of SDSM and DUI, implement a program of VMRO-DPMNE. That he was concerned about the issue related to the Law on languages, and that the constitutional judges elected by SDSM and DUI had to be intervened, to be careful what they are doing, because in this way they can destabilize the state. This is roughly the letter. Let the public evaluate whether this deserves comment", answered Mickoski on Tuesday, before the conference of the Bloomberg Adria platform.

He emphasized that he does not agree with DUI's position on how the state should function, and added that "the time when politicians can influence the decisions of judges and prosecutors is over."

Ahmeti, in addition to Mickoski, on Sunday also sent the letter to the leaders of Albania and Kosovo, as well as international ones, including the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen and the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, to address the recent decisions: the repeal of the Law on the use of languages, the prohibition of ethnic identification in state institutions (the Balancer) and the formation of a Government without fair ethnic representation.

Former American diplomat Daniel Server, at the same time a professor at "Johns Hopkins" University in Washington, also gave an answer to Ahmet's letter.

He said that the problems that Ahmeti points out in the letter should be decided by the citizens of North Macedonia, not someone from abroad.

Regarding the Law on the use of languages, Server said that there is no dilemma as it is clearly regulated by the Ohrid Agreement, and this should not be questioned.

"I don't understand how you can question this obligation without creating more problems than North Macedonia already has. This was an important part of the 2001 peace agreement. It is important to preserve it," said former diplomat Server.

Regarding the prohibition of ethnic identification in state institutions (Balancuesin), which, according to Ahmet, violates the principle of collective rights of ethnic communities, and affects the essence of the Ohrid Agreement, Server said this is aimed at the current dominance of Macedonians in high positions governmental.

"I doubt that the purpose of this proposal is to continue the current dominance of Macedonians in high government positions. [North] Macedonia needs to diversify its public sector workforce to more fully reflect the diversity of the population. I'm not a fan of quotes. But affirmative action with prior qualifications is a process that can produce reasonable results. Many Albanians have a qualification that most Macedonians lack, they speak both languages. The government should take this into account when hiring."

As for Ahmeti's third complaint, "the formation of a Government without fair ethnic representation", the former diplomat Server described it more as a political complaint, rather than a legal or constitutional remark.

The Constitutional Court of North Macedonia is expected to rule in December on the fate of the Law on the Use of Languages, which was adopted seven years ago.

According to the Law on the use of languages, those languages ??spoken by at least 20 percent of the country's citizens are used as official languages ??in state institutions in North Macedonia.

This includes the Albanian language, which is mentioned as the language of a significant part of the population and is defined in the first article of this law. Also, the law ensures the use of other languages ??of communities with less than 20 percent representation.

On October 9, the Constitutional Court in North Macedonia abolished Balancer, a software mechanism that regulated the "fair and adequate" representation of ethnic communities in public administration.

This mechanism was created to implement the 2001 Ohrid Agreement and ensured that the employment rate matched the ethnic composition of the population.

In response to the abolition of the Balancer, the Albanian coalition VLEN, which is part of the Macedonian Government, has announced that it is drafting "the law for fair and adequate representation".

But, despite this assertion of the VLEN coalition, the Minister of Public Administration, Goran Minçev, has stated that he has not yet seen the draft version of the "VLEN" coalition.

Prime Minister Mickoski had assessed that the decisions of the Constitutional Court should not be commented on.

But, Mickoski, the abolition of "Balanceuesi" was part of the election program of his party, VMRO DPMNE, in the last parliamentary elections, held on May 8./REL